Bidens mitis (Michx.) Sherff

Small Fruit Beggarticks; Coastal Plain Tickseed Sunflower; Florida Marigold

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Florida Marigold is a native herbaceous annual in the Sunflower family (Asteraceae). It can be found in the southern third of Alabama. Florida Marigold grows in swamps and marshes, along ponds and lakes, and in wet roadside ditches. It is an annual with a tap root. Stems are 1-3 feet in height. The stems are branched primarily from above the middle and are square. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate to lanceolate in outline, and once pinnately divided. The lobes are lanceolate in outline, glabrous, with serrate margins. Flowers are produced in heads. The heads are produced in corymbs. Each head has 8-13 yellow ray flowers and 25-50 yellow disc flowers. The flowers are subtended by a group of small broad bracts known as the calyculus that form a calyx-like structure. The calyculi have entire margins. The phyllaries are lanceolate. The fruit is an achene topped by 2 barbed awns. Florida Marigold can occur in profusion in disturbed wetlands or around the margins of ponds and lakes. It makes a spectacular display when in flower. Florida Marigold is not usually available from wildflower nurseries. However, it is easy to collect seed. The seed should be planted in a wet area with full sun.--A. Diamond

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Native OBL (NWPL)

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