Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
49. Asteraceae, the Aster Family
3. Bidens L. -- Beggarticks2. Bidens cernua L. -- Nodding beggarticks
Small to large, often bushy annual 1-12 dm tall; stem glabrous or with spreading hairs. Leaves simple, linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3-18 cm long, 0.5-4.5 cm wide, acuminate, shallowly to coarsely toothed and usually scabrous on the margin, sessile and usually clasping at the base. Heads discoid or radiate, hemispheric, 1.5-3 cm across, usually nodding after flowering; outer involucral bracts 4-8, linear-lanceolate, unequal, often exceeding the disk; rays, when present, 6-8, yellow, to 1.5 cm long. Achenes with 4 retrorsely barbed awns, the body often purplish with pale, thickened margins, 5-7 mm long, retrorsely barbed on the margins. Aug--Oct. Shores, stream banks, marshes, ditches, wet meadows and other wet places; common; (N.B. to B.C., s to NC, OK, NM and CA; also widespread in the Old World).
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