Water ragwort is a plant that has two scientific names in use, Jacobaea aquatica and Senecio aquaticus. It belongs to the daisy family, Asteraceae, and is also called marsh ragwort.
The plant lives in damp, grazed grassland, especially where the ground has been disturbed. Its life cycle is short: it grows as a biennial or a perennial.
Its most striking feature is the flowering shoot, which rises above a low rosette of leaves and carries many bright yellow flower heads, each with prominent ray florets.
Distribution and Habitat
Water ragwort is native to temperate Europe, from Ireland and Great Britain in the west across central and eastern Europe. Its native range extends to western Lebanon and Syria in the eastern Mediterranean, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia and the Balkans. The plant has also been introduced to the Azores.
It grows in damp grassland, where it favors grazed ground and places that have been disturbed. These open, wet sites are its main habitat.
Sightings of the plant peak in summer, mainly in June and July, and are scarce from late autumn through winter.
Growth and Form
Water ragwort grows as either a biennial or a perennial, depending on conditions. In its first season, it forms a rosette of leaves close to the ground.
The rosette is the stage that persists before the plant commits to flowering. Once it does, a taller shoot develops from the rosette and carries the flower heads that make the plant conspicuous.
Because the plant can be biennial, it may flower and set seed in its second year before dying, while a perennial plant can return to flower in later seasons.
Photos
Photographs from via iNaturalist, licensed under CC0 1.0., by Yannick Pochon via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by Paolo Zucca via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by Ondřej Křivan via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by Joss Carr via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by Pete Bradshaw via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by carabus123 via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., by considerthelilies via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., and by James Cunningham via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0., credited on each photo.
Ecology and classification
Habitat
Growth habit
- Herb
Classification
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Magnoliopsida
- Order
- Asterales
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Genus
- Jacobaea
- Species
- Jacobaea aquatica
Sources
- GBIF Species names and classification
- iNaturalist Photos
- Wikidata Common names and conservation status
- Wikipedia Summary extract
- Plants of the World Online Native range, life form and climate (WCVP)
