Smooth Beggarticks
Bidens laevis
Family: Asteraceae
This is an herbaceous, upright, wetland perennial that gets about 3’ tall or more, and a little less wide. Yellow flowers occur monsoon into fall.
Full to part sun, regular water (this can also grow submerged in the margins of ponds like yerba mansa (Anemopsis californica) and cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Hardy to -10°F.
Nectar rich flowers that attract loads of butterflies, native bees, and other pollinators. Seeds supply food for granivorous birds. Larval host to the American sunflower moth (Homoeosoma electellum), and dart moths (noctuid moths in the Agrotis genus), the Common Eupithecia Moth (Eupithecia miserulata), the Chrysanthemum Flower Borer Moth Lorita scarificata) and to the dainty sulfur (Nathalis iole) and Arizona metalmark (Calephelis arizonensis).
Bidens is derived from the Latin bis, twice and dens, tooth, hence meaning 2-toothed, while laevis means smooth or free of hairs.
Found in low, wet places and in shallow water, from 4,000-9,000 ft. from South America, Mexico, and the southern and eastern United States including Arizona.