Bidens frondosa (w/new crop)

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Sometimes we just walk by stuff a million times before noticing it. This little shrubby flower is one, but for some reason I stopped to look at it last September when, unfortunately, it was just about done flowering for the season. Probably I’ve never noticed it because I don’t hike much in high summer because of the insect onslaught. These flourish in very wet areas, so that makes the bug situation worse.

Still, it’s kind of an interesting plant with a ton of common names, mostly having to do with the devil for some reason - devil’s beggarticks, devil’s-pitchfork, devil’s bootjack, sticktights, bur marigold, pitchfork weed, tickseed sunflower, leafy beggarticks, & common beggarticks. The scientific name - Bidens: derived from Latin bis, “twice,” and dens, “tooth.” Hence meaning “2-toothed” and referring to the bristles on the achenes. Google defines achenes as a small, dry, one-seeded fruit that doesn’t split open at maturity (indehiscent), where the seed is attached to the thin ovary wall (pericarp) but isn’t fused to it.

Anyway, to the left of the flower cluster (which is only 1/4 of an inch across) is a strange little bug mooning me. It moved during the time I took the series of photos, but Zerene put it here and I left it.

Specific Feedback

Ok, the stack isn’t perfect…does it matter??

Technical Details

Tripod (I think) and several shots taken to combine into a stack. The wind made this a bit hit and miss which is obvious. 5 shots used.

Lr for a bit of a crop and some work with global and local adjustments to smooth out the tonalities. Stacked in Zerene with some retouching to even out the blur. Texture & sharpening added and also lowered the luminosity of the yellow channel because it was blowing out in spots.

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[Dennis_Plank]

I think the stack is fine as presented, Kris. An interesting little flower cluster. I think I’ve heard of a few of those common names, so we might have it out this way as well. I’ll have to look it up in my local plant book (my desk copy seems to have wandered away). I like the bug.

[David_Haynes]

Doesn’t look devilish to me at all. The stack looks fine on my laptop and I don’t see any issues. Depth of field falls off nicely with no strange artifacts.

I don’t recall ever seeing this flower out west but I’m no expert. I would crop off the right edge of the image as that dark band running along the edge is an eye grabber for me.

[Dennis_Plank]

P.S. I looked this up in our best (in my opinion) local field guide and we only have this as an occasional weed out here, though we do have two other species. To quote the authors (Pojar and MacKinnon): "The fruits…of Bidens provide classic examples of adherent or stick-tight dispersal, hence “beggarticks”. They go on to quote Thoreau from “The Dispersion of Seeds”: “If in October you have occasion to pass through or along some half dried pool, these seeds will often adhere to your clothes in surprising numbers. It is as if you had unconsciously made your way through the ranks of some countless but invisible Lilliputian army, which in their anger had discharged all their arrows and darts at you, though none of them reached higher than your legs.”

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Oh did he have a turn of phrase or what? Excellent description and I seem to remember having to pick stuff off my pant legs about the time I found these little guys.

[Bill_Fach]

Kris: Nice find and the stack and the resultant DOF look really good to me. If @David_Haynes had not mentioned it I probably wouldn’t have noted the dark right edge but now I can’t unsee it. Cropping or filling with like color would work equally well for me. Thanks also for the natural history lesson. Learning something new is one of my favorite things. >=))>

[kathrin (Kathrin Middelhoff)]

Hi Kris,
Thank you for showing this interesting plant.

Regarding depth of field and detail, quite a bit has already been said. For me, there is nothing to add.

I wanted to know if the plant also grows in Europe. The answer: it originally comes from America, but has since become naturalized here. There are locations along a river nearby. Maybe I’ll see it sometime

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Thanks @Dennis_Plank, @David_Haynes, @Bill_Fach & @kathrin - I’m pretty terrible at most plants so the ID came from iNaturalist, with that in hand I did a little looking and yes, as Kathrin says, it has crossed to Europe and spread. Mostly I hear about invasives coming the other way, but it’s a continuum.

Oh and new crop in the OP - I didn’t really “see” that dark edge either so thanks David.

[Diane_Miller]

Fascinating backstory for this plant, and a very nice image to go with it! The stack looks fine to me. The dark area on the border didn’t bother me but losing it did no harm. The BG is subdued but interesting. Good work!

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Thanks @Diane_Miller - it’s a funny little weed and one I’m glad I finally noticed.

[Jim_Zablotny]

Bidens is a tough genus to work with and this one is certainly a tough one to ID. I like the texture of the leaves and the flower is nice and crisp. The crop improves the comp. Well done…Jim

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Thanks @Jim_Zablotny - it is a big genus and I think I’ve only ever photographed one other species and it, too, was in a very wet area - a rocky river bank. Cheery little yellow guys -

strange, the picture shows for a bit then just the link symbol which will take you to my flickr page.