BEGGARTICKS, STICKTIGHT, RAYLESS MARIGOLD, BEGGARLICE,

PITCHFORKS, or STICK-SEED (B. frondosa) sufficiently explains its

justly defamed character in its popular names. Numerous dull,

dark, tawny orange flower-heads without, rays, or with

insignificant ones scarcely to be detected, and surrounded by

taller leaf-like bracts, add little to the beauty of the moist

fields and roadsides where they rear themselves on long peduncles

from July to October. The smooth, erect, branched, and often

reddish, stem may be anywhere from two to nine feet tall. Usually

the upper leaves are not divided, but the lower ones are

pinnately compounded of three to five divisions, the segments

lance-shaped or broader, and sharply toothed. As in all the

bur-marigolds, we find each floret's calyx converted into a

barbed implement - javelin, pitchfork, or halberd - for grappling

the clothing of the first innocent victim unwittingly acting as a

colonizing agent.