Bidens frondosa

Sticktight, Sticktight

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Sticktight is a native annual herb found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, northern coastal California, southwestern California, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert in damp, often disturbed sites at elevations up to 2,100 meters. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces yellow flowers in small heads with occasional ray flowers and distinctive orange disk centers. Growing with square stems 50 to 120 centimeters tall, it develops a robust and branching habit. Its pinnately compound leaves have 2 to 8 centimeter long lanceolate leaflets with sharply pointed tips and serrated edges. The distinctive fruit is a narrow, wedge-shaped dark seed 6 to 10 millimeters long with two persistent awns, giving the plant its common name of "sticktight".

Habitat: Uncommon. Damp soil, especially disturbed sites

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: generally <= 2100 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, GV, n CCo, SW, GB, DMoj (Mojave River)

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.