in r^ / 



TICKSEED SUNFLOWER (Beggar-ticks) 



Bidens aristosa ( Michx. ) Britt. 



August - September Now in ScpU'inltcr tliere comes over the country- 

 Fields, ditches side that true autuniii glory which reaches a cli- 

 max of color in the niassiu": of vellow everywhere. 

 September is the yellow time; now the tickseed sunflowers hloom. There 

 are millions of tlmse ,a-list('nin<:- oraufie-yellow daisy llowers in all the 

 low damp ])laces. Thi y loljiiw the contours of the landscape and fjrow 

 in all the open sunny low lands — down the meanderin*; len;xth of a drain- 

 aii'c Wiish in a (ield. alonu- the roadside ditcher, across whole (lescrted 

 lields, esjK'cially in southern ]lliiu)is in the oil lields. There is in the lick- 

 seed sunflower little of the aspect of wewliness so often associated with 

 the late sunnner and autumn llowers. 'J'hese plants are all low, seldom 

 more than two feet tall, slender, smooth, with finely compound thin, 

 glossy leaves, and many hraui liing stalks hearing those cupped, dazzling 

 yellow llowers. They are open in sunshiny weath.er, closed and drooped 

 in rain or at night. To Illinois they give something of the same splash 

 of golden color over the lantlsca])e which is jirovidcd l»v California ])oppie.s 

 on the hillsides of the west. 



The tickseed suntlowei- is not a true sunflower, l»ut is in the genus 

 Bidens. the bur-marigolds, beggar-ticks, and Spanish needles. They 

 are noted for their two to four l)arl)e(l awns on the seeds which stick 

 to a passerby and travel along on his clothing. Some are exceedingly 

 sharp and unpleasant, others not so ])ersistent. Oidy a few of the Bidens 

 have flowers of any b(>auty ; most of them are so highly efficient as seed 

 producers that they have no ray flowers, but concentrate flower energy 

 u{)on the center — the flower is all center — where the massed seeds are 

 developed. 



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