COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 473 
BEGGAR-TICKS 
Bidens frondosa, L. 
Other English names: Bur Marigold, Stick-tight, Devil’s Bootjack, 
Pitchfork Weed. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seed. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: Throughout United States and southern British America. 
Habitat: Moist soil; gardens, fields, pastures, roadsides, and waste 
places. 
All the Bidens are most annoying weeds and this one is perhaps 
the most so because it is everywhere. 
erect, smooth or nearly so, often 
purplish in color, with spreading 
branches. Leaves opposite, usually 
smooth, the lower ones generally 
five-lobed with terminal segments 
long-pointed and often again di- 
vided; upper ones three-parted or 
sometimes lance-shaped, all sharply 
toothed; petioles slender, and 
grooved on the upper side. Heads 
numerous, about a half-inch long, on 
slender peduncles ; involucre double, 
with an outer row of five to eight 
leafy and spreading bracts, spatu- 
late, with edges hairy at base, much 
exceeding the heads in length; the 
inner row short, with scarious mar- 
gins; rays, when present, yellow, 
very small and inconspicuous, sterile ; 
disk-florets tubular, orange-yellow,. 
five-toothed, perfect, and fertile. 
Achenes wedge-shaped, black, flat, 
Stem two to five feet high,° 
Fic. 329. — Beggar-ticks (Bidens 
frondosa). X %. 
ridged down the center of each face, the apex bearing two di- 
verging, downwardly barbed awns, which enable them to attach: 
themselves to clothing and to the coats of animals, particularly 
sheep, and so ensure a wide distribution. (Fig. 329.) 
