Trifid bur-marigold – plant with a future

Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Trifid bur-marigold
 
Trifid-bur marigold; Three-lobe beggarticks; Bur marigold    Kolmisruse       Bidens tripartita
 
A quite common native plant in Estonia, of the Compositae or daisy family, a flowerer in “muddy” habitats: ditch banks and verges, creek banks, in wheel tracks left by heavy forest or agricultural machinery. When we notice the trifid-bur marigold growing in corn fields – where it occurs as a weed – it shows that the field is too wet and not suitable for grain cultivation.
 
The pretty flowers are worth a closer study; you will notice that the inflorescences are composed mainly of disk florets and only rarely some single ray florets can be found at the edge of the capitula. The disk florets have pistils as well as stamens, the ray florets only pistils. Depending on the habitat, the height of the plant can vary between 6 and 60 centimetres.
 
The leaves on the branched stems are dark green and glossy – the upper simple, the lower with of three lobes.
 
In late autumn the seeds of the trifid-bur marigold are ripe; they look somewhat similar to sunflower seeds – dark brown-in colour and glossy. At the tip of the seed 2-3 bristles, attached to them small barbs. Such seeds autumn roamers have picked from their clothes or the coats of pets. So the trifid-bur marigold ensures its spread.  
 
The leaves of the plant contain a great deal of carotene and tannins, tested successfully in the treatment of children’s diathesis. Substances in the plant have strong anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effect – hopefully possible to employ in the future against these “illnesses of the century”.


 

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