Bidens laevis smooth beggar-ticks; showy bur-marigold Asteraceae BILA; Q (DeCandido 2001);

  

Bidens laevis.ct-botanical-society.org.Janet Novak

Bidens laevis. ©2001 Janet Novak.ct-botanical-society.org. (Accessed5/2014).

Bidens laevis is an annual herb to perennial, 25-100 cm tall, much like B. cernua, not nodding as much.

Leaves opposite, simple, long and narrow (lance-shaped), 4-20 cm long, 0.5-4.5 cm wide, stalkless, margins toothed sometimes lobed; sometimes nodding in fruit.

Flowers yellow, ray flowers about 8, 1.5-3 cm long, disk 1.5-2.8 cm wide, papery bracts among red-tipped disk flowers, basal bracts hardly leafy; flower heads erect; blooms and fruits Aug.Oct.

Fruit 1-seeded (achenes), 3-4 angled, with 2-4 barbed awns. 

Wetland status: OBL. 

Frequency in NYC: Very infrequent. 

Origin: Native. 

Habitat: Marshes, stream margins. Tolerant of brackish water.