Poison-flowers

Saturday, 12th October 2002, West Yorkshire

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common ragwort After six mainly dry weeks it is raining continuously. While writing up yesterday's diary I sit at the desk by the studio window and sketch one of the Welsh ponies (above) which is standing, looking rather fed up, in the meadow. I don't realise that this will be my last chance to look out and draw them. They are being moved to a field down the road today. cinnabar moth caterpillars Common ragwort, Senecio jacobaea, is a weed of neglected pastures. Its yellow daisy-like flowers attract hoverflies while its ragged leaves (and the flowers) provide food for the cinnabar moth caterpillar. Like the cinnabar moth itself all parts of the plant are poisonous. Because of the danger to grazing stock ragwort is a notifiable weed and you can be fined if you don't take steps to eradicate it when ordered to do so.
Oxford ragwort, a smaller relation of common, is still in flower at roadsides and on wasteground but the flowers of common ragwort have now died back and its leaves are starting to shrivel. I guess that it is probably more dangerous in this state because the ponies, browsing the last flush of growth in the meadow, might be more likely to take a mouthful of its shriveled leaves. It sounds pretty awful but I've seen them munching on prickly holly leaves, fence tops and even old Christmas trees.
Bevan The previous Welsh pony that was kept in this meadow, Bevan, showed symptoms of poisoning. An emergency tracheotomy in the field helped him rally, but he died soon after. Now that ragwort is spreading again it's not worth the risk of keeping the ponies there.

Ragtime Memories

From Anne Rothwell

I was taken aback to learn from him that pulling 2nd year ragwort by hand can result in toxins entering the body by crossing the skin-barrier, and can subsequently cause damage to the liver. You see, the reason I was taken by surprise, and not a little concerned,is the awareness that all the members of my family who were strong enough, (probably an increasing number year on year) were employed in trying to rid our pastures of ragwort by grasping the long strong stalks, and pulling the cluster of adventitious roots out as a clump. This was during the 1950s. We are all a year or two older now (!) but none of us has had cause to have our liver or its function examined.

I wonder were we all (at least three in number, possibly as many as five, plus two of the generation older than us) very lucky? Do we happen to have some kind of rare immunity such as Tony Hancock would have been proud of, or do we just assume that the strain of ragwort involved was less toxic? The pony suffered no ill effects , nor the cows, as far as we know, though we left the pulled plants to wither where we had pulled them.

Link

Information about Ragwort poisoning in humans and horses by Derek Smith of Ragwort-UK Ltd., a company which breeds Cinnabar moth caterpillars for release as natural predators for the biological control of ragwort.

Richard Bell, wildlife illustrator E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'