Bidens frondosa L.

Devil’s beggartick, devil’s-pitchfork, devil’s bootjack, sticktights, bur marigold, pitchfork weed, tickseed sunflower, leafy beggarticks, common beggar-ticks

Some similar species

	Bidens cernua	You are here Bidens frondosa
Common Name	nodding beggartick	devil’s beggartick
Plant	Up to 13′ (4 m) high, usually less than 3′ (91 cm)	1–3′ (30–91 cm) high, rarely up to 6′ (1.8 m). Stems are square in cross-section, nearly hairless, and light green, reddish green, or purple
Leaves	Opposite, and sessile or clasping—leaf bases wrap around the stem. Leaves are 1½–8″ (4–20 cm) long × up to 1″ (2.5 cm) wide, and simple (unlobed)	Lower leaves are odd pinnate clusters on long petioles, in opposite pairs; upper leaves may be alternate. Leaves are up to 3″ (7.6 cm) × 1″ (2.5 cm), coarsely toothed, deltate or lanceolate.
Flowers	Composite flowers are 1–2″ (2.5–5 cm) across, have up to 8 petals, though rarely the ray flowers are missing and only the tubular disk flowers are present. The flowers are sideways-facing, rather than upward-facing	Each composite flower is composed of 20-60 orange-yellow disc florets about ⅜–½″ (9.5–12 mm) around, and rarely a few yellow rays, each 1/16–⅛″ (2–3.5 mm) long. They are encompassed in 6-10 phyllaries, like a rosette of small leaves. Flowers occur in groups of 1-12, appearing from late summer to early fall.
Fruit	Fruits are brown, hard, and triangular in shape, with four barbed spears of roughly equal length called awns	The seeds or achenes are shaped like a narrow triangle, with two barbed fork tips that attach to fur or clothes. The seeds are also distributed by the wind.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Near shorelines and the edges of wetlands, in sandy or mucky soil	Moist woods, meadows, thickets, fields, roadsides, railroads, borders of streams, ponds, sloughs, swamps, ditches

Bidens frondosa description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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