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Nodding Beggarticks - Bidens cernua

Native Species

Global Rank: G5
State Rank: SNR
C-value: 4


Agency Status
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General Description
Annual. Stems erect, often branched, 10–80 cm, often puberulent. Herbage glabrate. Leaves short-petiolate to sessile, lanceolate, serrate 2–15 cm long. Inflorescence: heads few, nodding at maturity; peduncles 1–4 cm long. Involucre: outer phyllaries 5 to 8, spreading to reflexed, linear-oblanceolate, 15–40 mm long, minutely ciliate; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate, 7–12 mm long. Rays 6 to 8 (absent); ligules 2–15 mm long. Disk corollas 3–4 mm long. Pappus of usually 4 awns 2–4 mm long. Achenes 4-angled, compressed, 5–6 mm long (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Diagnostic Characteristics
In Montana Bidens species have opposite leaves, involucral bracts of 2 types, awned seeds that catch your clothing, and grow in wetland habitats. Several species lack ray florets.

Nodding Beggarticks - Bidens cernua
*Life Span: Annual.
*Leaves: Simple or shallowly lobed and toothed. Petioles are short and distinct or sessile and winged.
*Flower Heads: Composed only of disc and ray florets.
*Pappus: Usually with 4 awns.
*Habitat: Wet or moist places that may become temporarily inundated.

Three-lobe Beggarticks - Bidens comosa
*Life Span: Annual.
*Leaves: Simple or shallowly lobed and toothed. Petioles are short and distinct or sessile and winged.
*Flower Heads: Composed only of disc florets though sometimes with inconspicuous ray florets.
*Pappus: Usually with 3 awns.
*Habitat: Wet or moist places that may become temporarily inundated.

Beck Water-marigold - Bidens beckii, SOC
*Life Span: Perennial
*Leaves: Of two types. Submerged leaves are dissected into thread-like segments. Emergent leaves are simple and toothed.
*Flower Heads: Composed only disc and ray florets.
*Pappus: Of 2-6 awns.
*Habitat: Aquatic.

Tall Bur-marigold - Bidens vulgata
*Life Span: Annual.
*Leaves: Pinnately divided and with a distinct petiole.
*Flower Heads: Composed only of disc florets; ray florets absent. Outer phyllaries are 10-16 mm long.
*Pappus: With 2 awns.
*Habitat: Wet or moist places that may become temporarily inundated.

Devil's Beggarticks - Bidens frondosa
*Life Span: Annual.
*Leaves: Pinnately divided and with a distinct petiole.
*Flower Heads: Composed of disc florets; ray florets absent or inconspicuous. Outer phyllaries are 5-8 mm long.
*Pappus: With 2 awns.
*Habitat: Wet or moist places that may become temporarily inundated.

Range Comments
Circumboreal, throughout North America (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 57

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat
Vernally inundated, often disturbed shores of streams, ponds, lakes, marshes; plains, valleys (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Ecology
POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus griseocollis and Bombus impatiens (Plath 1934, Colla and Dumesh 2010).


References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.
    • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 2006. Flora of North America North of Mexico. Vol. 21. Magnoliophyta: Asteridae (in part): Asteraceae, part 3. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxii + 616 pp.
    • Hitchcock, C.L. and A. Cronquist. 2018. Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual. Second Edition. Giblin, D.E., B.S. Legler, P.F. Zika, and R.G. Olmstead (eds). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press in Association with Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. 882 p.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
    • Plath, O.E. 1934. Bumblebees and their ways. New York, NY: Macmillan Company. 201 p.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
    Do you know of a citation we're missing?
    • Culver, D.R. 1994. Floristic analysis of the Centennial Region, Montana. M.Sc. Thesis. Montana State University, Bozeman. 199 pp.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
    • Sater, S. 2022. The insects of Sevenmile Creek, a pictorial guide to their diversity and ecology. Undergraduate Thesis. Helena, MT: Carroll College. 242 p.
    • Tuinstra, K. E. 1967. Vegetation of the floodplains and first terraces of Rock Creek near Red Lodge, Montana. Ph.D dissertation. Montana State University, Bozeman 110 pp.
  • Web Search Engines for Articles on "Nodding Beggarticks"
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Citation for data on this website:
Nodding Beggarticks — Bidens cernua.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from