Asteraceae FAMILY

Bidens frondosa

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

4/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual

Growth—

Originally from N. America, Bidens frondosa has spread through cultivation and as a weed - it is reported to be naturalized in many parts of Europe, temperate Asia and New Zealand. Succeeds in any moderately fertile moisture-retentive soil in full sun^[1].

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. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Bidens+frondosa>

Pollinators

Bees, Hoverflies

References

[1]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · 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.
[2]Flora of N. America — http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/fna/ ↩︎An on-line version of the flora with an excellent description of the plant including a brief mention of plant uses.
[3]Invasive Species Compendium — http://www.cabi.org ↩︎An immense resource - in depth information on over 900 species of invasive plants (it also has information on animals, fungi etc).
[4]A California Flora. — Munz P.A. & Keck D.D. · University of California Press; Los Angeles · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent flora but no pictures. Not for the casual reader.
[5]Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. — Crowe. A. · 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.
[6]Plants for Human Consumption. — Kunkel. G. · 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.