bidgee-widgee

The bidibidi is a small plant with deeply divaricated opposite leaflets and long stems ending in a globular capitulum. The flowers are pink, red, or white. It can be distinguished from Acaena novae-zelandiae by "the distinctive tuft of brush-like hairs surmounting the leaf teeth apices," and by silvery leaf undersides.

Acaena anserinifolia is native to the North Island, South Island, Stewart Island, and the Chatham Islands in New Zealand. It has been introduced to Antipodean Islands, Great Britain and Ireland. It is naturalised on the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island. The plant grows in lowland to subalpine areas, and on forest edges. They are sometimes hydrorphytic.

The species' ability to attach seeds to clothing likely evolved as a way to disburse seeds by attaching to the feathers of flightless birds, including kiwi, weka and moa.

Boiled piripiri leaves are used in traditional rongoā medicinal practices, either as a healing tonic or a lotion applied to skin. Smoke from burning piripiri was a traditional remedy for people who had been poisoned by tutu.

The Māori language name piripiri is used for a variety of Acaena species found in New Zealand. Piri is a word used across various Polynesian languages for sticky plants. Other Māori language names for the plant include huruhuru o Hine-nui-te-pō ("feathers of Hine-nui-te-pō"), pirikahu, hutiwai; many other names include the elements kaiā (thief) and rure (scatter), including kaiā, kaikaiārure and kaikaiā. The English language name biddy-bid is based on a mishearing of the Māori word piripiri, and over time the word biddy developed as a verb in New Zealand English, meaning to remove seeds from clothing. The species epithet, Anserinifolia, is a reference to the leaves, which are like Potentilla anserina.