What is the difference between big beggarticks and Spanish needles?

Big beggarticks and Spanish needles are two types of grass that people find relatively difficult to distinguish, so what is the difference between big beggarticks and Spanish needles?

1. The difference between big beggarticks and Spanish needles

1. Stem: the stem of big beggarticks is nearly round, while the stem of Spanish needles is bluntly four-angled;

2. Flower: big beggarticks has no ligulate flowers, while Spanish needles has white or yellow ligulate flowers;

3. Leaf: big beggarticks has opposite pinnately compound leaves, while the leaves at the branch tips of Spanish needles are opposite or alternate;

4. Fruit: the achene of big beggarticks is flat, while the achene of Spanish needles is slender and rod-shaped.

2. Basic introduction to big beggarticks

Big beggarticks is also called wolf's beggarticks, relay grass, needle-and-thread pouch, one-package needle, foreign debility grass, needle-and-thread pouch grass, etc. It belongs to the Asteraceae family and the genus Bidens, and is a widely distributed hygrophytic plant.

Big beggarticks can grow under wet and shallow-water conditions in temperate and subtropical climates. It prefers acidic to neutral soil and can also tolerate saline-alkaline conditions. In the meadow of the Songnen Plain in Northeast China and by lakesides with relatively high salinization, it often becomes a subdominant or dominant species in certain wet plant communities of the Poaceae, Cyperaceae, and Polygonaceae. Big beggarticks often grows in groups, or forms a pure community as a single dominant species, and also participates in community composition as an associated species or subdominant species.

3. Basic introduction to Spanish needles

Spanish needles is also called ghost hairpin grass, shrimp-claw grass, crab-claw grass, opposite-fork grass, sticky-person grass, sticky seed, bean-dregs grass, etc. It also belongs to the Asteraceae family and the genus Bidens, and mostly grows beside villages, roadsides, and in wasteland.

Spanish needles prefers to grow in warm and humid climate zones, and is best suited to loose, fertile sandy loam and clay loam rich in humus.

It is an annual late-spring weed. It reproduces by seeds. Generally, the seeds germinate and emerge from mid-April to May, and the suitable germination temperature is 15-30°C. Early to mid-May is the peak outbreak period, and August to October is the seed-setting period. The seeds can be spread by wind, flowing water, and manure, and germinate after overwintering dormancy.