Organic Bidens Pilosa seeds (Spanish needles).

Bidens Pilosa (Spanish needles). Organic Seeds.
Other names: Beggarticks, Demon spike grass, Neddle grass, Череда, Acetillo, Dadayem.
Annual. Sunflower family. USDA hardiness 5-9
Plant Part Used: Aerial part. Harvest leaves and soft stems BEFORE the plant goes into bloom.

Most people hate Bidens because of how invasive that plant is and how difficult it is to get the seeds off of your clothes if you happened to walk through a patch in the fall when the fruiting heads are matured and the seeds are ready to stick to anything! But when I tell how amazing it is, you’ll be tending your patch with love – and harvesting it before it sets seed. And that’s a win-win! In fact, this weed could save your life.

Bidens is mentioned in the “Herbal Antibiotics, 2nd Edition: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-resistant Bacteria” book by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
The whole plant is antiseptic, aperient, astringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, narcotic, sedative, styptic and sudorific. It is an excellent remedy for ruptured blood vessels and bleeding of any kind and is of benefit to people with consumption. It is used internally to treat bladder and kidney problems, blood in the urine, uterine bleeding, ulcerative colitis, and peptic ulcers. Externally, it is used in the treatment of alopecia. It is usually combined with a carminative herb such as ginger when used to treat digestive tract ailments. The plant is harvested as it comes into flower and is dried for later use.
Leaves are edible.

Habitat

Bidens pilosa is a common and widespread species of plants in the sunflower family, is native to much of Eurasia, North Africa, and North America, with naturalized populations in Australia and on some Pacific Islands.

How to grow Bidens

Bidens is an annual self-seeded plant 2-6 feet tall, 2-4 feet wide depending on the soil condition.

In the wild, they are found in damp places and near freshwater.

It grows easily from seed.

Pick an area where it won’t become a problem when it starts spreading. Plant the seed 1/4 inch deep in the moist soil in early spring or late fall. Best results when the seeds overwinter in the soil (cold stratification). You can broadcast it or sow it in rows. Keep moist.

Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It absolutely can grow in the shade but prefers a sunny or partial sunspot, moist or wet soil.

When growing on the edge a pond, its seeds have been known to kill goldfish by adhering to their gills.

Plant Description

Bidens pilosa is an erect, annual herb that stands from 0.3-2 m high and bears opposite, pinnately compound, broadly ovate, (3-)5-9-lobed leaves 3-20 cm long and 2.5-12 cm wide. Leaf segments ovate to lanceolate lobed or bilobed at the base with margins crenate-serrate and apices acute. Stems are reddish tinged; 4-angled, simple, or branched. Heads solitary or in lax paniculate cymes at the ends of the main stem and lateral branches, usually radiate, 5 – 12 mm broad. Heads with 2 rows of involucral bracts, outer ones 7-10, spathulate, reflexed at anthesis, 3-4 mm long, inner ones ovate-lanceolate; ray flowers absent or 4-8, sterile, corolla 7-15 mm long, white to yellow or pinkish, disk flowers with 3.5 – 5 mm long, yellow corolla. Achenes are black, 4-8 ribbed, linear, 6-16 mm long, with 2-3(-5) retrorsely barbed bristles of 2-4 mm long.

The Best Kept Secret

In 1929, Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin. It began to be readily available with WWII. At that time new antibiotics were being discovered daily. However, Dr. Fleming noted as early as 1929 that numerous bacteria were already resistant to Penicillin. At that time 14 percent of staph bacteria were resistant to penicillin. By 1995, with decades of widespread use of antibiotics, 95% of staph were resistant to penicillin. In 1960, when resistant staph had become the most common hospital-acquired infection, physicians started using methicillin to combat resistant strains. In just a year, MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph) emerged. 70 years from the introduction to antibiotics, some staph bacteria have become resistant to all known pharmaceutical antibiotics. Bacteria seem to be winning the “war on disease.”

Herbs are different than pharmaceuticals. Bacteria can develop immunity to pharmaceuticals because they represent only one, or a few, compounds. Natural herbs, on the other hand, are made up of hundreds of complex compounds that bacteria can’t develop immunity to. Bidens is a natural antibiotic that will successfully treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It outperforms penicillin, tetracycline, methicillin, and other antibiotics for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.