Broad-leaved ragwort

Description:

This is a robust conspicuous plant, which grows sometimes to five feet high and has a brownish or green stalks, with narrow green leaves snipped about the edges somewhat like those of the peach tree, or willow leaves, but not quite of so light a green. The stalk spreads at the top, and is furnsihed with many yellow star-like flowers, which grow in a cup that is fringed, or surrounded with short leaves at the bottom. The seed is somewhat long, small, and of a brown colour, wrapped in down; and, when ripe, is carried away with the wind. The root consists of fibres set together at a head, which survives the winter, although the stalks dry away, and the leaves then disappear. The taste and smell of the whole plant is raw and unpleasant.

Habitat:

Senecio fluviatilis has a Eurosiberian temperate distribution and it is naturalised in northwest Europe beyond its native range. The Broad-leaved ragwort is a tall perennial herb that can be found by streams and rivers, and in fens, fen-woodland, swamps and marshy grassland.

Notes:

Spotted on a flood plain of the Ijssel river in rural area of Deventer, Holland.