LucasLand

The Wildflowers

European

or

Trifid Beggar-ticks

or

Trifid Bur-Marigold

Bidens tripartita

from King's American Dispensatory

Bidens connata, Willdenow (Bidens tripartita, Linné). Cuckold's, or Swamp beggar-ticks, has a smooth stem, 4-furrowed, with opposite branches, and grows from 1 to 3 feet high; the leaves are lanceolate, opposite, serrate, acuminate, slightly connate at the base; the lower ones are mostly trifid; the lateral divisions are united at the base, decurrent on the petiole; the scales of the outer involucre are longer than the head, leafy, mostly obtuse, scarcely ciliate; rays none; the achenia is narrowly wedge-form, 2, 3, or 4-awned, with downwardly-barbed margins; the flowers are terminal, solitary, consisting only of the tubular, yellow florets, surrounded by a leafy involucre. This is likewise a common weed found in wet grounds, rich fields, swamps, and ditches, from New England to Missouri. It flowers in August (G.—W.). Bidens connata has likewise been recommended in the above affections, also in palpitation of the heart, in which the infusion or decoction, drank freely through the day, has been found effectual.