Three-lobe beggarticks

- Colourful secret

Beggarticks is a funny little plant that grows in damp soil along streams and lakes. The beggartick’s yellow flower is quite unimpressive and not very easy to spot. It belongs to the same plant family as daisies and marguerites, and also looks like a marguerite that has had all its white florets picked off. The plant's seeds have two small brushes that easily get stuck in clothes or in animals’ fur and thereby spread the seeds to new habitats. The sticky seeds have been given names like ”bootjacks” and ”priest-lice”. However, the unimpressive-looking beggarticks also hide a colourful secret because they can be used to colour fabric and yarn fire- yellow, red-yellow and golden brown.

Facts: The plant is 15-60 cm high and has reddish-brown stalks and lobed leaves with coarse-toothed border. It blooms in July-October with brown yellow basket with tubular flowers. Lobed beggarticks grows on damp bare soil by watercourses, lakes and ponds. Another member of the plant family, nodding beggarticks, has yellow nodding flowers.