Description
Sticktight is a simple yet powerful native wildflower that is fairly nondescript to the human eye, but the late blooming flowers provide important pollen and nectar sources for pollinators late in the season, helping keep bees buzzing and butterflies fluttering along rivers and streams in the Klamath-Siskiyou region well into the fall. Sticktight is a tall annual wildflower that typically grows from .5 – 4′ tall, sometimes taller, and grows really fast!
Sticktight can grow from a single stalk or have many branches. The leaves are pinnate and divided. It is a member of the Asteraceae (Aster) plant family and has golden orange flowers primarily composed of disc florets. It often lacks ray florets but some heads have a few small yellow ray florets.
Sticktight is a lover of moist, wet or saturated locations, such as riverbanks, edges of lakes, ponds, or sloughs, in gravel bars along streams, irrigation ditches or wet farm fields, moist woods, meadows, or thickets. Typically flowering August-September at low to mid elevations, sticktight has a wide range, and grows widespread throughout North American. It has become invasive in other parts of the world, including Europe. Its many common names include devil’s beggarticks, devil’s-pitchfork, devil’s bootjack, sticktights, bur marigold, pitchfork weed, tickseed sunflower, leafy beggarticks, and common beggar-ticks. It prefers to grow in full sun and sandy or loamy soils and reportedly does not grow well in clay soils.
Sticktight has flat black or brown seeds that are barbed with two hornlike pappi at one end that help the seeds stick to animals and humans (socks, shoelaces, pants, etc.) or other passerby, helping move seeds around the landscape and facilitating seed dispersal.
Sticktight has long been used in herbal therapies for various maladies, including urinary tract issues and gout because it helps increase the excretion of uric acid.
Seed Germination Instructions:
No pretreatment required. Sow seeds outside in fall to early spring and keep moist.
