Sunday, December 04, 2005

Bur Marigold


Picture taken September, 2005
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

I have a lot of yellow flowered plants, most of which I have been unable to identify even with the help of three guide books. I believe this is the Nodding Bur Marigold (Bidens cernua). It is a member of the Aster family. I found it growing in a swampy area next to the boardwalk.

3 comments:

T. Beth said...

For wildflower-watchers, yellow daisies are as numerous and difficult to identify as little brown birds are for bird-watchers. I have lots of photos of unidentified yellow daisies, and I know that some are in the genus Bidens, but I just can't figure out the species.

You could probably fill an entire wildflower guide with nothing but pictures of different species of yellow daisies!

Kingfisher said...

Thanks this word of encouragement. I spent ages looking through books and on the internet and found tons of pictures of yellow flowers but only identified one of mine.

Every birder I know has a copy of Sibleys. What is the Sibley equivalent for Plant naturalists (and would it take a mule to carry it around?). Is there a "definitive" guide or a couple you could reccomend?

T. Beth said...

Unfortunately, I don't know of any. I just collect plant books because each will have something that none of the others do.