Ragwort

Drone fly on ragwort

Ragwort thou humble flower with tattered leaves

I love to see thee come and litter gold...

Thy waste of shining blossoms richly shields

The sun tanned sward in splendid hues that burn

So bright and glaring that the very light

Of the rich sunshine doth to paleness turn

And seems but very shadows in thy sight.

John Clare 1831

As you step through the gate of the nature reserve or walk along the towpath from June to November, amongst the grasses you will see large, flat-topped clusters of golden-yellow, daisy-like flowers; these sit atop long stalks carrying raggedy leaves (hence the name). Each plant is a biennial, meaning that it will flower in the second year (perhaps producing over 2000 flowers over the season) and then usually die.

By Hilly Orchard bridge

In the UK it is in the top ten of plants which show the best benefit to wildlife feeding on nectar (the bugs in return help pollinate the flowers). Around 35 insects, including seven moths and seven beetles, just rely on ragwort for their food. Various butterflies, hoverflies, moths, and solitary bees and wasps love it too; for hundreds of them, like the cinnabar moth, ragwort nectar and pollen is a really important larval food. Then there are parasites for some of these insects, and birds eat the seeds, so you can appreciate the plant’s amazing value to nature.

Hoverfly

Soldier beetles

Speckled wood butterfly

If you look out for the cinnabar moth caterpillars, wearing black and golden-orange striped pyjamas, you will see what a voracious appetite they have, sometimes stripping all the leaves. This can encourage the plant to grow a new basal rosette, and then it will last for longer, behaving more like a perennial. Animals, horses included, avoid eating the growing plant as the leaves contain bitter-tasting, alkaloid toxins, but the cinnabar moth caterpillar has evolved a way of storing the toxin, even retaining it after pupation. Birds then know to avoid the warning bright colours of the caterpillar and the moth if they don’t want a yucky meal.

 
Links to further information and images 
 
Greg’s Wildlife - Ragwort
Ragwort Facts