The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Bidens pilosa
Also called Black Jack, Cobblers' Pegs, Spanish Needles, Beggar Ticks, Cobbler's Pegs, Beggar's Tick, Common Black Jack
Hairy beggarticks is a fast-growing annual weed in the daisy family, native to tropical America and now widespread worldwide. It grows aggressively on disturbed ground and is often grown or foraged for its leaves.
Bidens pilosa is an annual species of herbaceous flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. Its many common names include hitch hikers, black-jack, beggarticks, farmer's friends and Spanish needle, but most commonly referred to as cobblers pegs. It is native to the Americas but is widely distributed as an introduced species in other regions including Eurasia, Africa, Australia, South America and the Pacific Islands, and is classified as an invasive species in some regions of the world.
Almost 200 compounds have been isolated from B. pilosa, especially polyacetylenes and flavonoids. The plant contains ethyl caffeate, a hydroxycinnamic acid.
The species is native to tropical America, widely naturalized throughout the warm temperate and tropical regions of the world. A weed of gardens, woodlands and waste areas.
Although Bidens pilosa is primarily considered a weed, in many parts of the world it is also a source of food and alternative medicine. The leaves have a resinous flavor and are eaten raw or in stews or dried for storage. In eastern Africa it is used for medicinal purposes to treat wounds. Extracts from Bidens pilosa are used in southern Africa for malaria.
Eaton's beggarticks · Devil's beggartick · Connecticut beggarticks · Estuary beggarticks · Bidens nudata · Manzanilla trepador · Big devils beggartick
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Bidens pilosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
