Bidens Pilosa Botanical Description

Bidens pilosa is eaten in africa as a vegetable.

Bidens pilosa botanical description. Leaf segments ovate to lanceolate lobed or bilobed at the base with margins crenate serrate and apices acute. Commonly known as spanish needle or beggar s ticks bidens pilosa is a common crop weed and wasteland plant widespread on every continent except antarctica. Fermented with rice to make sake range. A ligulate flower is bisexual with a bilateral generally ephemeral corolla and 5 lobed ligule.

Bidens pilosa is a widespread weed of tropical subtropical and warm temperate regions of the world. The plant is gathered from the wild for local use as a food and medicine. Stems are reddish tinged. This plant can be weedy or invasive according to the authoritative sources noted below this plant may be known by one or more common names in different places and some are listed above.

Bidens pilosa is a branched annual forb of gracile habit growing up to 1 8 meters tall it grows aggressively on disturbed land and often becomes weedy. Some specimens in the west indies appear to have some achenes with three awns some with only two awns and some with a reduced third awn e g. 4 angled simple or branched. C an irritate the bladder and kidney in high doses.

It is easily recognised by the elongated fruits that bear hooked bristles burrs that embed themselves in people s clothing as they brush past the stems. There are 60 native species of bidens in hawai i and 19 of those are endemic. Description bidens pilosa is an annual herb with an erect habit to 1 5 m in height stanley and ross 1983 1989. Easily recognizable by the sharp aggravating seed pods that embed themselves into hair and clothing bidens pilosa is used in both traditional chinese medicine and western herbalism as well as in folk medical traditions around the world.

Liguliflorous heads comprise only ligulate flowers. Bidens pilosa is an annual plant producing an erect much branched stem up to 100cm tall though the plant can often flower seed and then die when much smaller. The plant may flower at any time of the. The petioles are slightly winged.

This species has high reproductive potential and fast growing rates which are traits enabling it to rapidly spread and colonize new area. Bidens pilosa is native to south america the caribbean africa and the philippines. The leaves are all oppositely arranged and range from simple to pinnate in form the upper leaves with three to five dentate ovate to lanceolate leaflets.