Daisy and Dandelion Family

Ragwort is a  poisonous weed with animal fatalities reported each year. Normally the animal will avoid eaten it but when it is finely chopped up in silage the animal has little choice but to eat it. The seeds spread with the wind. The best solution is to pull the whole plant up, burn or bury them.

Widespread and common in pastures, also on the roadsides, waste ground, sand dunes and shingle beaches

Flowering time: April to November, a magnificent sight if one is not a farmer or owner of horses.

Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), can spread across a field quickly if left unchecked, making a welcome source of food for insects, including the caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth. The golden-yellow, daisy-like flowers are in large dense, flat-topped terminal clusters above deeply lobed leaves, which usually have a larger end lobe.