TANSY RAGWORT
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TANSY RAGWORT--Senecio jacobaea L. Asteraceae-(Sunflower family)
Tansy ragwort is a biennial or short-lived perennial from a taproot. Stems are 1 to 6 feet tall, solitary or several, simple up to the inflorescence. Their pubescence consists of cobwebby hairs in early stages of growth. Leaves 2 to 8 inches long, alternate and equally distributed, mostly 2 to 3 times pinnately lobed, the terminal lobe generally larger than the lateral ones. Flowering heads are numerous. Both ray and disk flowers are yellow; ray flowers are 10 to 13 in number and 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. Fruits of the disk flowers are minutely pubescent; those of the ray flowers are glabrous.
This European native is widespread in Washington, Oregon and California, having arrived in seaports in the early 1900s. Tansy ragwort is toxic to cattle and horses. Like common groundsel, it has several alkaloids which produce irreversible liver damage. Flowering occurs from July to September. While tansy ragwort is not presently in all the western states, it does infest millions of acres of private range, public range and pasture land in the Pacific Northwest.
(Courtesy of Weeds of the West)
OTHER LINKS THAT HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT TANSY RAGWORT
Plant Images from: USDA, NRCS. 2008. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 19 March 2008). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.