Beggar Tick

The habitat of the Beggar Tick grows in slightlyhave a 10x hand lenses, hold the achene up to the light
shaded, wet places, especially areas that are dry laterand you might be able to see which direction the
in the summer. Found along peaty, sandy, or saltybristles are pointing. Water-hemlock and water-parsnip
shores and often on hummocks or partially submergedalso have compound leaves with lanceolate leaflets,
and decaying, mossy logs in swamps. Their descriptionbut are easily distinguished from beggar's tick, by the
is glabrous annual herb with fibrous roots. Uprightalternate leaf arrangement.
stems 3-10 dm tall, branched or unbanked, veryThere are a few similar species such as in
slender, often red. Opposite leaves, thin andMassachusetts, there are other species of
membranous; lower innately compound with 3 leaflets,beggar-ticks with simple or lobed leaves that occur in
upper often simple, lanceolate, tapering to a long pointsimilar habitats as Eaton's beggar-ticks. Estuary
at the tip; margins with coarse, forward-pointing teeth.beggar-ticks another endangered species, and smooth
Numerous, small, discoid, slightly orange flower heads, 5beggar-ticks are species that occur in tidal river shore
mm tall and 3-10 mm wide; floral rays absent; eachcommunities. Both of these species have leaves that
flower head subtended by 2-5 smooth, leafy bracts,lack petioles, at least near the middle and upper parts
much longer than disk. Fruit a flattened achene, 3-6of the stem.
mm long with 2 bristly awns.Also, smooth beggar-ticks have capitula with
Look-alikes: Swamp beggar's ticks are most likely tocomparatively large, yellow ray flowers, unlike the tiny
be initially confused with other beggar's-tick species;ray flowers sometimes found on the capitula of the
however, there are a few simple characters thatEaton's beggar ticks. It is more difficult to tell
easily differentiate it from the others. The lack of rayspurple-stemmed beggar-ticks from Eaton's
on the flower heads and the innately compoundbeggar-ticks. This common and wide ranging species is
leaves eliminates many beggar's-ticks fromfrequent in non-tidal habitats, but also occurs along
consideration. Only devil's beggar tick and tallfresh tidal river shores. It usually has more flowers per
beggar's-tick also lack rays and have compoundcapitulum (20-65, rarely up to 150) and has cypselas
leaves. The up- or downward pointing bristles of thethat are diamond-shaped in cross-section and are
awns can be seen with 10x magnification during anywarty-tuberculation on the faces.
stage of flower or fruit development. If you do not