Chris and Urodacus, thanks a lot!
I knew they weren’t really daisies!
That was my last question for today. Thank you very much everyone for answering all of my questions about wildflowers and weeds in Taiwan.
I’ll go hiking again next week (probably Tuesday or Wednesday) and if I see any other unidentified wildflowers or weeds, I’ll post the pictures here.
Mark
Hence “bi-dens”.
indeed! pilosa, of course, meaning a bit hairy.
I’m interested in learning to identify local plants and flowers that can be used for dyeing wool, cotton, silk and linen. I know how to handle mordants and the like; I just need to find the plants locally, and preferably free for the gathering, rather than importing madder root etc…
I haven’t had time to start my homework on this one yet, but just thought I’d throw the topic out there, since we already have this thread, to see if anyone knows this kind of stuff. 
How are you identifying these… and so quickly?
Thanks about the asters! They overgrow my garden, look lovely until they die off and muck the place up. And are hard as hell to pull out at the roots, so invasive…
Some are well-known and common worldwide (Lantana, Morning Glory).
As for Bidens pilosa, I saw right off the bat that it was of the aster family, so I googled 菊科 (Chinese for “Asteraceae”) and 台灣 (“Taiwan”), checking Google Images for plants that looked like the one posted. That led me to a page with the scientific name of the plant.
I think it is actually called a daisy, it’s just one of the daisy family or aster in Scientific terminology. Even daisies in Europe have more than 5 petals (the old she loves me, she loves me not rhyme).
Miaoli county is full of wild and weedy flowers at the moment following the final rice harvest this year. Some are deliberately sown to fertilise the soil, others are simply weeds. In some parts of Miaoli you will also see Chrysanthemums being grown for tea.
Spanish Needle is what it’s sometimes called.
The Mimosa is often called “touch me not.”
Yes, the seeds from the morning glory can induce a high. They contain powerful psychoactive alkaloids–dangerous, so please don’t self “medicate.”
Seeds from some varieties of the morning glory are combined with other herbs in a concoction called “yage,” used by shamans in the Amazon to induce powerful psychedelic/spiritual “escapades.”
There’s a tree overhanging the path I use on my daily walk that drops these little green berries. If to crush one underfoot, it leaks clear fluid. When you come back down the path an hour later, the fluid has changed colour to a deep dark blue. I’ll try to identify the tree.
There’s also a very heavy crop of mountain peppers up there this year. They have a gorgeous citronella fragrance. Used a lot in Atayal cooking.
Litsea cubeba, known as maqaw by the Atayal.
Correct. I give them a wash and dry and put them in the oven at very low temperature with the door cracked open a wee bit. They turn out like little black peppercorns and you grind them in the same way. They’re lovely and lemony, with a little touch of the tongue numbness you get off good sichuan peppers. Works great with fish and chicken.
That’d be cool, thanks! I believe indigo doesn’t turn blue until it oxidizes (just got some, but haven’t had time to try it), and it’s a great dye, so I wonder whether those berries contain a similar compound?
Bidens pilosa is also used as a natural dye in East Africa.
Hey wasnt there a thread bout “biting dog” and “biting cat” . Two dangerous plants found on Taiwan that you need to avoid? Wheres that thread. Watch out for them suckers.
Yeah, here’s the thread:
Dog’s_Breakfast gave the Chinese names and posted pictures of the two plants.
This is a great thread. I’m completely in the dark about these kinds of things.
look a bit like morning glory
Looks like someone had a VERY merry Christmas! 
What’s the story?
Come on Sandman for the untrained eye they do look a bit similar!!!
Now get on and write a book about Taiwan wild flowers Mr Sandman as I want to read it in English, can u include some with medicinal properties too?
ah ok I read the whole thread now.
so that is Morning glory. 
sorry going too fast my brain cant keep up.