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Bidens pilosa

Common name:	Beggar's Ticks	Family:	Compositae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	44
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	The roots, leaves and flowers are strongly phototoxic, the achenes weakly so[218]. Substances isolated from the leaves can kill human skin in the presence of sunlight at concentrations as low as 10ppm[218].
Range:	New Zealand. A pantropical weed[272].
Habitat:	Damp lowland fields and wasteland, North and Kermadec Islands[44]. Moist, open neglected places at elevations of 700 - 2000 metres in Nepal[272].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	2

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	B. odorata[B,P] B. pilosa var. bimucronata[B,P] B. pilosa var. minor[B,P] B. pilosus[E]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Aceitilla [E], Alfiler [E], Bidens [S,H], Bidens, Tickseed [S], Clavelito De Monte [E], Hairy Beggarsticks [L], Hairy Beggarticks [B], Jarongan [E], Ketul [E], Pau-pau Pasir [E], Romerillo [E], Saltillo [E], Spanish Needles [P], Subang Puteri Batek [E], Te De Coral [S], Tickseed [S], Yema De Huevo [E], Z'Aiguille [E], Zeguie [E],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	pilosa = hairy
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Asterales. Renamed to Asteraceae -- Aster family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Africa Bahamas Brazil Dominica Dominican Republic Ghana Haiti Java Malaysia Mexico Newguinea(Dani) Philippines S Africa Tanzania Tonga Upper Volta Venezuela W Africa
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 1m. . It is in flower from May to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees and hover-flies. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 2/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Leaves Tea.

Leaves - raw or cooked[177]. A resinous flavour[173]. Added to salads or steamed and added to soups and stews, they can also be dried for later use[183].A good source of iodine[272]. A nutritional analysis is available[218].
Young shoot tips are used to make a tea[177].

Composition

Seed (Fresh weight): In grammes per 100g weight of food:
Protein: 17.5 Fat: 17.1
Leaves (Dry weight): In grammes per 100g weight of food:
Water: 0 Calories: 295 Protein: 24.5 Fat: 4 Carbohydrate: 56.4 Fibre: 12.1 Ash: 15.1
In milligrammes per 100g weight of food:
Calcium: 1721 Phosphorus: 273 Sodium: 11 Potassium: 267 VitaminA: 12

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Alterative Antifungal Antiinflammatory Antirheumatic Styptic.

A juice made from the leaves is used to dress wounds and ulcers[218, 272]. A decoction of the leaves is anti-inflammatory, styptic and alterative[218].
The whole plant is antirheumatic, it is also used in enemas to treat intestinal ailments[218].
Substances isolated from the leaves are bactericidal and fungicidal, they are used in the treatment of thrush and candida[218].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

We have very little information on this species and do not know if it will succeed outdoors in Britain, though it should be possible to grow it as a spring-sown annual. The following notes are based on the general needs of the genus.
Succeeds in any moderately fertile moisture-retentive soil in full sun[200].

Propagation

Seed - sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in May.
Alternatively, a sowing in situ in mid to late spring can be tried.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[S] Image from the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database
[R] Rainforest medicinal Data (common names, medicinal uses, images) from the Rain-Tree.

References for Bidens pilosus (a possible synonym).

[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[44] Allan. H. H. Flora of New Zealand. Government Printer, Wellington. 1961
The standard work, in 3 volumes though only the first two are of interest to the plant project. Very good on habitats.

[173] Crowe. A. Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. Hodder and Stoughton 1990 ISBN 0-340-508302
A very well written and illustrated book based on the authors own experiments with living on a native diet.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[218] Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. Medicinal Plants of China Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN 0-917256-20-4
Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
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This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Bidens+pilosa
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