Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Devil's beggar-ticks

DEVIL'S BEGGAR-TICKS

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Bidens frondosa L.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 8-48 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: August, September,October

Also Called:

Beggar-ticks.

Stems:

Erect or ascending, slender, branched, sometimes purple, mostly glabrous or sparingly pubescent at nodes.

Leaves:

Opposite; stalk slender, .4 to 2.4 inches long, sometimes narrowly winged; blade pinnately compound or deeply cleft, appearing 3-5-foliolate, ovate-triangular in outline, 1.2 to 5 inches long, .8 to 6 inches wide; leaflet segments lanceolate to elliptic, .6 to 4.8 inches long, .2 to 1.2 inch wide; surfaces glabrous or minutely stiff-hairy; margins toothed; tip tapering to sharp point; terminal segment usually longer than lateral segments.

Inflorescences:

Heads, solitary or 2-3 in loose, open clusters, small, bell-shaped to hemispheric, terminal or in leaf axils; stalks .4 to 3.2 inches long; disk 1/3 to 2/5 inch across; outer involucral bracts 5-10, (usually 8), leaf-like, unequal, linear-spatulate, 1.2 to 2 inches long, conspicuously fringed, loosely ascending to spreading; inner bracts 6-12, narrowly ovate to lanceolate or oblong, .2 to .4 inch long, brownish.

Flowers:

Ray florets absent or if present 1-5, golden yellow, inconspicuous; disk florets 20-150, 1/10 to 1/6 inch long, orange-yellow.

Fruits:

Achene, narrowly wedge-shaped, 1/5 to 2/5 inch long, 1/10 to 1/6 inch wide, flat, pubescent to nearly glabrous, tipped by 2 stiff awns, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, downwardly barbed, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Moist woods, stream and river banks, pond and lake margins, marshes, ditches, waste areas; wet soil.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas

Origin:

Native

Reproduction:

By seeds

Toxicity:

Accumulates nitrates in toxic amounts. Can cause skin irritation.

Devil's beggar-ticks inflorescence and bracts