A stand of beggarticks

I’ve been watching a stand of beggarticks, in genus Bidens, near the Yellow River. I gather that B. alba is no longer considered a separate species from B. pilosa. But I’m not a good enough taxonomist to have understood the distinction, real or imagined.

Ironically, some people think that B. alba is native to Georgia, while B. pilosa is an invader from South America. The plant has some interesting chemistry that is being studied by medical researchers.

Bidens means two-toothed. (Picture Poseidon’s trident with a missing tooth.) The seedpod is a little two-pronged pitchfork that sticks to your clothes and to animal fur. The idiom “sticks like a tick” gives the plant its common name.

Beggarticks bloom year-round — white ray petals around yellow centers.

The plants in the stand I’ve been watching are head high. I heard the stand before I saw it. Bees and butterflies swarm it. If you are looking for plants that attract pollinators, beggarticks would be hard to beat.