Spanish Needles (Bidens alba)

Also known as: beggarticks

Quick Facts

• Type: wildflower
• Size: 2-4 ft tall
• Sun: full
• Water: low
• Soil: Adaptable; any reasonably drained soil
• USDA zones: 8-11

Simple white daisies bloom nearly all year and feed more pollinators per square foot than almost anything.

Self-seeds with enthusiasm, so deadhead if you want manners; one of Florida's top butterfly plants, weeds or not.

In the Landscape

Let it colonize the edges of butterfly gardens, meadow plantings, and informal beds where its nearly year-round white daisies feed pollinators. Keep it out of formal beds unless you enjoy editing volunteers.

Care & Propagation

It grows in almost any reasonably drained soil with zero care. Deadhead regularly if you want to limit the enthusiastic self-seeding; otherwise let it do what it wants. Usually behaves as an annual or short-lived perennial, constantly renewing itself from seed.

Direct-sow seed in spring, or simply let it self-sow; it needs no cold treatment and germinates readily in warm soil. One plant's seeds can populate a whole bed by next season.

Wildlife Value

Pound for pound, one of the most important butterfly nectar plants in Florida, visited by gulf fritillaries, sulphurs, skippers, and many more, plus native bees nearly year-round. Few plants feed more pollinators per square foot.

🌱 Fun fact: The name Bidens means two-toothed, describing the twin barbed prongs on each seed that hitchhike on fur, socks, and shoelaces. That clingy habit is exactly how it spread across the tropics and subtropics worldwide.

← Browse all Florida native plants

🌴 In Florida

Self-seeds with enthusiasm, so deadhead if you want manners; one of Florida's top butterfly plants, weeds or not.

🌿 Keep exploring

More Florida natives worth meeting:

• Alligator Flag (Thalia geniculata)
• American White Waterlily (Nymphaea odorata)
• Anisescented Goldenrod (Solidago odora)

🍽️ Also see the edible-plant profile for this same species: Spanish needles (Bidens alba) — how to eat it and harvest notes.