Bidens torta is an erect, suffrutescent perennial herb that grows 1-2.5 meters tall and has horizontal or ascending lateral branches. The leaves are pinnately or bipinnately compound, usually 9-30 cm long, including the petiole. There are 3-9 leaflets, ovate-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate or nearly linear in bipinnately compound forms. The leaflets are typically 2.5-13 cm long and (0.5-)1.5-6 cm wide. Young leaves are white, golden, or rusty pubescent, with serrate margins. The flower heads are numerous, with more than 50 heads in many-branched compound cymes that terminate lateral branches. The heads, including the ray florets, are 1.5-3.5 cm in diameter. Peduncles are 0.4-2.2 cm long and are white, golden, or rusty pubescent. The outer involucral bracts are 1.5-3.5(-4) mm long, and the inner ones are distinct. There are 3-6 sterile ray florets per head, with yellow rays 8-21 mm long and 4-7 mm wide. Disk florets number 11-22 per head and are either perfect or female, with yellow corollas. The pappus consists of minute awns or may be absent. The fruit is a simple, dry achene (cypsela). The achenes are black, strongly twisted, tightly coiled up to 4 revolutions, or irregularly contorted. They are wingless, 2.5-10(-13) mm long (short lengths due to coiling), 0.5-1 mm wide, and glabrous. It occurs on dry ridges to wet forest bogs between 200 – 1200 meters.
Bean-shaped (Reniform): Resembling the shape of a kidney or bean.
Square or Oblong: Angular shape with all sides more or less equal or longer than wide.
Triangular: Three-sided shape, broadest below the middle.
Elliptic: Rounded at both ends. shaped like an ellipse or oval.
Ovate or Obovate: egg-shaped, broader at one end.
Linear: Extremely long and narrow, with sides usually parallel.
Round: Appears circular, with length and width roughly the same.
Cardioid (Heart-Shaped): One edge has a prominent double curve into two lobes.
Cylindrical: A cylinder with parallel sides and a circular cross-section.
Discoid: Resembling a disc or plate with two relatively flat surfaces.
Fusiform: Spindle-shaped, tapering at both ends.
Globose: Spherical.
Lenticular: Resembling a lens with two convex surfaces.
Ovoid: Egg-shaped.
Plano-convex: Having a flat ventral (planar) surface and a curved dorsal (convex) surface.
Polygonal: Having more than three flat faces meeting at angles.
Sectoroid: Resembling a segment of an orange with two relatively flat faces and one curved face.
Subglobose/ellipsoid: Inflated shape but less than spherical.
Trigonous: Having three faces that meet at a distinct angle; triangular in cross-section.
Endangered species (E) are species that are so rare they’re in danger of becoming extinct.
Threatened species (T) are species that are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their range.
Species of Concern (SOC) are species about which there are some concerns regarding status and threats, but insufficient information is available to list the species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Plant Extinction Prevention (PEP) is a state status for rare plants that focuses its efforts on species that have fewer than 50 remaining wild individuals.
Orthodox seeds (desiccation-tolerant): can be dried to an internal seed moisture of less than 12% water and stored at freezing temperatures.
Intermediate seeds (temperature-sensitive) tend to age faster than orthodox seeds and may have only a 5-year lifespan when stored at -20°C. They are recommended for storage at 5°C.
Recalcitrant seeds (desiccation-sensitive): cannot be stored in a conventional freezer as they cannot survive after drying and/or freezing at -20°C. They are recommended for cryopreservation storage.