Senecio fluviatilis Wallr., Broad-leaved Ragwort

Account Summary

Growth form and introduction:

A native of C & E Europe, S. fluviatilis was introduced to gardens in the British Isles either from the Netherlands or Germany in the 17th century (around 1620), as a medicinal herb for treating wounds (H.J. Killick, in: Stroh et al. 2023). A tall, erect, perennial with a short creeping rootstock and fleshy, spreading stolons up to 60 cm long, plus many large, entire leaves, up to 20 × 6 cm, Broad-leaved Ragwort forms clumps and grows up to 200 cm or more in height. Numerous flowerheads, 1.5-3.0 cm diameter and bright yellow are produced in large, branched corymbs on the tall stems (Clapham et al. 1987; Griffiths 1994; Sell & Murrell 2006).

S. fluviatilis is regularly confused with a closely related garden introduction, S. doria (Golden Ragwort) (Clement & Foster 1994), but the latter has thicker, fleshier, decurrent stem leaves and the flowerheads are smaller and have fewer ray-florets than those of Broad-leaved Ragwort, ie four to six compared with six to eight (Clapham et al. 1987).

One of the earlier botanical names the species has borne is S. saracenicus, which had as its English vernacular equivalent, 'Saracen's Woundwort' or, alternatively, 'Saracen's Worm-wort', it also being a supposed vermifuge (Salisbury 1964). Despite the suggestion that this Ragwort had a history of herbal medicinal uses, it is not mentioned by Grime (1931) in her comprehensive book, A modern herbal and it is also totally neglected by Allen & Hatfield (2004) in their treatment of medicinal plant use in B & I.

Previously, this big, bulky, conspicuous ragwort that flowers from July to September had a tendency to escape from garden cultivation, or perhaps it was discarded – being just too large for many gardens. In many instances, it probably has been superseded in garden fashion by better, more easily grown and controlled decorative subjects. While it was previously mentioned as a suitable subject for planting by ponds and stream margins, "where it spreads fast" (Robinson 1909), S. fluviatilis or S. saracenicus does not feature in influential guides to garden plant subjects such as for instance Perennial garden plants or The modern florilegium (Thomas 1990, 2004), or in a European equivalent (Hansen & Stahl 1993), which leads the current author (RSF) to believe it is no longer popular and commonly planted in flower borders or water gardens.

The flowers are visited and pollinated by bees and flies and the large, smooth, ribbed achenes, 3-4 mm long have a very large pappus parachute three times as long as the fruit to assist their wind dispersal (Salisbury 1964; Clapham et al. 1987). The plant can become naturalised and may persist and establish in damp lowland sites, including on the margins of marshy meadows, in fens, wet woods and on stream- and river-sides (Clement & Foster 1994).

S. fluviatilis is thinly scattered throughout both B & I, stretching northwards into C Scotland (Perring & Waters 1962, 1976; Garrard & Streeter 1983; New Flora of the BI 1991; Sell & Murrell 2006). In Ireland, it has been recorded in 22 of the 40 VCs in the past, but in the great majority of its former sites it has declined and disappeared, particularly so in the north of the island (Cen Cat Fl Ir 2; Cat Alien Pl Ir). Hectad maps in both the BSBI New Atlas and the Atlas 2020 display recent records from only seven Irish hectads scattered chiefly in the northern half of the island (Preston et al. 2002; Stroh et al. 2023).

The Fermanagh Flora Database contains just two records, the details of the second being: above Silverhill quarry, near Enniskillen, 1950, MCM & D. This ragwort has not been seen at all during the current 30-year flora survey and it is presumed extinct.

European and world occurrence:

A native of C & S Europe, S. fluviatilis belongs to the Eurosiberian temperate phytogeographical element and has a distribution that stretches from Spain to N Italy, the N Balkan Peninsula and as far east as S Russia. It also reaches northwards to Holland and Estonia and eastwards across to Siberia (Sell & Murrell 2006).

Threats:

None.

References

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