Bidens laevis (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.

Smooth Beggarticks; Showy Bur Marigold

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Showy Bur Marigold is a native herbaceous annual or weak perennial member of the Sunflower family (Asteraceae). It can be found in scattered locations across Alabama. Showy Bur Marigold grows in swamps, around the edges of ponds and lakes, and in wet roadside ditches. The stems are decumbent and often root along their lower portions. Showy Bur Marigold has opposite, sessile, elliptic or lanceolate leaves that are either entire or toothed. The leaves are glabrous. Flowers are produced in heads. The heads are arranged in corymbs. The heads are subtended by 5-7 lanceolate to linear bracts. The bracts are sometime leaf-like. The bracts have ciliate margins and glabrous faces. Each head has 7-8 yellow ray flowers and 60-100 yellow disc flowers. Showy Bur Marigold heads are held erect in flower, though they often nod in fruit. Showy Bur Marigold fruits have two to four barbed awns on their apex. These catch in the fur of animals (or clothing of humans!) and aid in seed dispersal. Showy Bur Marigold is sometimes available through wildflower seed companies. In requires full sun and wet soil. It is an excellent addition to pond edges, and produces a spectacular late season show, with thousands of flowers produced for up to a month’s time. It is an important late season nectar source for butterflies, and the fruit are consumed by song birds and waterfowl. It is similar to Nodding Bur Marigold (Bidens cernua Linnaeus), and the two may in fact be extremes of the same species. Nodding Bur Marigold usually has fewer ray flowers, and the heads are nodding in flower.--A. Diamond

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Native OBL (NWPL)

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