Cobblers pegs (Bidens pilosa)
After you finish reading this, you will be able to:
- Identify the Cobblers Peg, Beggars Tick or Farmers Friend.
- Know the habitat of the Farmers Friend or Beggars Tick and
- Know the best cultural and chemical options to control Farmers Friend or Cobblers Peg.
Cobblers Peg is an Environmental weed in NSW and QLD. The distribution map is courtesy of The Atlas of Living Australia.
How to Identify Cobblers Peg.
Category: Broadleaf (Dicot).
Photosynthetic Pathway: C3 Weed.
Flower: Cobblers Peg flowers all year round, and its small flower-heads (5-15 mm across) have numerous tiny yellow tubular flowers in the centre. Sometimes it also has white petals 2-8 mm long.
Height: Up to 1.8m high, but usually 20-90 cm tall.
Leaf length: The toothed leaves are 2.5 to 13.5 cm long.
Leaf width:
Reproduction: Farmers Friend reproduces only by seed due to hooked bristles on the fruit. These readily attach to clothing and animals. The seeds also disperse by vehicles, by water, and in agricultural produce.
Comments:
Habitat: Cobblers Peg is a weed of gardens, parks, roadsides, and waste areas.
Farmers Friend is a good soil indicator weed of disturbed soils, and thin lawns. For more information check out our weed ID Chart.
How to control Cobblers Peg in your lawn.
You can control Cobblers Peg by cultural and chemical means.
Cultural control:
Chemical control of Cobblers Peg.
Non selective options include Glyphosate (Rapid Fire 800) and Glufosinate-ammonium .