|
Graver Home |
|
|
|
|
Close-up of flower and leaf
Bidens cernua
Common Name: Nodding
Bur-Marigold
Family: Asteraceae
Description: An annual herb. "Cernua" in Latin means "nodding".
Leaves: Smooth, stalkless, lance-shaped leaves; margins are coarsely toothed; 3-16 cm long and 0.5-5 cm wide.
Flowers: 6-8 showy yellow rays 2.5 cm in length. Each flower is 5 cm in diameter. Flowers nod, or droop, increasingly with age. Center disk consists of darker yellow tubular structures. Often fringed with hair.
Seeds: Flat, four pronged seeds (achenes) that are broadest at top tapering to a narrow base.
Stem: Erect or sometimes growing along the ground and rooting at the nodes; smooth or hairy; often branched
Branching Pattern: Opposite
Height: 30-90 cm
Conditions/Habitat/Kind of Forest: Sedge meadows, sandy or muddy shores, marshes, stream banks, and other wet places.
Range: Most of U.S. except parts of the Southeast
Conservation Status-US/ World Wide: Invasive
Uses (Human): Used in meadow landscaping and wetlands restoration
References:
Chadde, Steve W. A Great Lakes Wetland
Flora (2nd ed.) Michigan: PocketFlora Press, 2002.
Peterson, Roger Tory, and Margaret McKenny. Peterson Field Guides: A field guide to Wildflowers of
Northeastern and Northcentral North America. New York: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1968.
Rook, E. Aquatic Plants of the North: Bidens cernua. February 26, 2004. Accessed: November 29, 2005. <http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/aquatics/bidenscer.html>