| Author | L. | |
| Distribution | Throughout the state, though not known from the Outer Banks or other barrier islands.
N.S. to AK, south to FL, TX, and CA. Latin America. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to common across the state, except very rare to absent along the Outer Banks and other barrier islands. | |
| Habitat | Moist to wet (or dryish) soils of meadows, marshes, floodplain forests, beaver pond marshes, ditches, and waste places. |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting June-October. | |
| Identification | This is an annual plant up to 3 feet tall and shrubby-branched. Leaves are cut into 3-5 lance-shaped segments, toothed along the margins. The heads are rayless but packed with 30-60 (or more) yellow disk florets. At the base of each head are typically 8 leaflike bracts in a circle, typically not all the same shape and size. B. vulgata is very similar, but differs in having 10-16 or so leaflike bracts (vs. 8 or so in B. frondosa) which are coarsely ciliate (vs. finely or sparsely so in that species). Both species have flat seeds with 2 awns -- the prototypical "Devil's Pitchforks." | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Devil's Pitchforks, Common Beggarticks | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
