Spanish Needles

Known also as Romerillo or Beggar’s Tick, Spanish Needles (Bidens alba) produces small, yellow-centered daisy like flowers with white petals. Known mostly as a weed, Spanish needles are an admirable nectar flower that attract many small butterflies like hairstreaks and blues and even larger species. The blooms on each plant are profuse and continue blooming for a very long season.

Whenever I find a patch of these flowers I am generally captivated by the diversity of butterfly species that can be observed in just a few minutes. Last summer I found a roughly 30 foot by 30 foot patch of Spanish Needles growing in Northwest Florida around DeLeon Springs and within half an hour I noted 26 species of butterfly! In the MOSI butterfly gardens there are always Spanish Needles left to bloom not by accident, but rather by design. Although most consider these flowers a pesky weed, I see them as an important nectar source.

These flowers give way to seeds that have contributed to the many common names for this plant. Each seed has two hooks that jut out from the end of the seed and have an amazing ability to catch on just about everything. Clothing, hair, shoes, kids, wild animals and pets that come in contact with these seeds will help to spread the weedy flowers by taking their seeds to new and interesting places.

To keep this weed in the garden for your butterflies to enjoy and not make yourself crazy with weed-pulling the next year, just remove Spanish Needles before they start to go to seed. You’ll probably never have a garden entirely free of this common wildflower, so just go with it and invite some local butterflies to enjoy the buffet.