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Senecio vulgaris

Senecio vulgaris, often known by the common name Common groundsel, a humble in appearance member of the Asteraceae family and Senecio genus, is a tenacious deciduous annual whose presence now encompasses the globe in a wide area of easy to somewhat difficult growing conditions.

The discussion of Common groundsel dates back to the first century and more recently, it is the subject of much contradictory and reactionary information about where it came from, how it got there, whether is it really hurting the crops, how to get rid of it, and how dangerous it is when ingested by various animals.

Description

Standing only between 4 and 16 inches (10 to 41 cm) tall, bright florets mostly hidden by the characteristic bract giving it the appearance of never opening flowers and with a life span of 5-6 weeks, the self fertilizing Senecio vulgaris lives humbly among and occasionally under the other weeds and is easy not to notice.

Leaves and stems

Leaves of Senecio vulgaris grow directly from the stem, sessile or lacking their own stem (petiole), alternating in direction along the length of the plant, two rounded lobes at the base of the stem (auriculate) and sub-clasping above. Leaves are pinnately lobed and + long and wide and get smaller as up the plant. Leaves are covered sparsely with soft, smooth, fine hairs. Lobes typically sharp to rounded saw-toothed.

The hollow succulent stems branch at the tops and from the base. Stems and leaves can both host the Cinerarea leaf rust.

Flowers

Open clusters of 8 to 10 small cylinder shaped rayless yellow flower heads ¼ to ½ inch (6 to 13 mm) with a highly conspicuous ring of black tipped bracts at the base of the inflorescence as is characteristic of many members of the genus Senecio.

Seeds

The name for the genus Senecio is probably derived from Senex (an old man), in reference to its downy head of seeds; "the flower of this herb hath white hair and when the wind bloweth it away, then it appeareth like a bald-headed man" and like its family, flowers of Senecio vulgaris are succeeded by downy globed heads of seed. The seeds are achene, include a pappus and become sticky when wet. Laboratory tests have suggested maximum seed scattering distances of 2.1 and 3.2 yd (1.9 and 2.9 m) at wind speeds of 6.8 and 10.2 mph (10.9 and 16.4 km/h) respectively (affected by plant height) suggests that it was more than wind that spread these groundsel seeds throughout the world.

The average weight of 1000 seeds is 0.21 gram (2,200,000 seeds per pound) and experienced a 100% germination success before drying and storage and an 87% germination success after drying and 3 years of cool dry storage. In simple models for seed emergence prediction, soil thermal time did not predict the timing and extent of seedling emergence as well as hydrothermal (warm rain).

Roots

The root system, which stinks when dug up, consists of a shallow taproot. This plant spreads by reseeding itself.

Groundsel acts as a host for the fungus that causes black root rot in peas, alfalfa, soybeans, carrots, tomatoes, red clover, peanuts, cucurbits, cotton, citrus, chickpeas, and several ornamental flowering plants; a list of flowering plants which can host their own fungus as well.

Common names

Old-man-in-the-Spring, Common Groundsel, Groundsel, Ragwort, Grimsel, Grinsel, Grundsel, Simson, Birdseed, Chickenweed, Old-man-of-the-spring, Squaw Weed, Grundy Swallow, Ground Glutton, Common Butterweed
cardo-morto
Åkersvineblom
Almindelig Brandbæger
Badeljac, Guščernjak, Kostrič zečji, Obični dragušac, Obični kostriš, Obični staračac
Gemeines Greiskraut, Gemeines Kreuzkraut, Gewöhnliches Greiskraut
Harilik ristirohi
Ħaxixa tal-Kanali, Kubrita
Herbe aux coitrons, Séneçon commun, Séneçon vulgaire
Klein kruiskruid
Korsört, Vanlig korsört
Krossgras
Navadni grint
Paprastoji žilė
Parastā krustaine
Peltovillakko
starzec zwyczajny
Senecione comune
hierba cana, senecio común, flor amarilla, cineraria o yuyito
Starček obyčajný
סַבְיוֹן פָּשׁוּט סביון פשוט

Крестовник обыкновенный
歐洲黃菀
欧洲千里光
ノボロギク、野襤褸菊

Distribution

Senecio vulgaris is a frost resistant deciduous annual plant which grows willingly in disturbed sites, waste places, roadsides, gardens, nurseries, orchards, vineyards, landscaped areas, agricultural lands, at altitudes up to and is, additionally, self-pollinating producing 1,700 seeds per plant with three generations per year. Seeds which are dispersed by wind and also which cling to clothing and animal fur, and as contaminates of commercially exchanged seeds; the relocation of this plant throughout the planet has been difficult if not impossible to contain.

There is conflicting information about the native status of Senecio vulgaris in various locations. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service Plants Profile Database considers it to be native to all 50 of the United States of America, Canada, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the same USDA through the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) considers it to be native only to parts of Afro-Eurasia. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System Organization (ITIS), a partnership between many United States federal government departments and agencies states that the species has been introduced to the 50 United States, and the online journal Flora of North America calls it "probably introduced" to areas north of Mexico. Individual research groups claim it is not native to areas they oversee: Florida, Washington, Wisconsin, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Missouri. The United States Geological Survey reports that Common Groundsel is exotic to all 50 states and all Canadian provinces with the exception of Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Labrador.

Native

Senecio vulgaris is considered to be native to Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Georgia, Republic of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Republic of Ingushetia, Chechen Republic, Republic of Dagestan, Amur Oblast, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kamchatka Oblast, Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, Primorsky Krai, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Sakhalin Oblast, South Korea, North Korea, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Central Federal District, Russian Southern Federal District, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, France and Portugal.

Current

America

Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories and Nunavut (not collected North of the Hudson Bay), Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon.

Mexico: Aguascalientes, Baja California Norte, Chiapas, Coahuila, Distrito Federal, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Estado de México, Nuevo León, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz

North America: United States of America, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon

South Amercia: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru

Africa

Northern Africa: Algeria, Egypt including Sinai, Libya, Morocco and Spanish Morocco, Tunisia

Asia

Western Asia: Iran, Israel with the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Syria.

Caucasus: Adygea, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Georgia, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia-Alania

Northwestern Asia: Arkhangelsk Oblast including Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Novaya Zemlya, Astrakhan Oblast, Bashkortostan, Belgorod Oblast, Bryansk Oblast, Chuvashia, Lipetsk Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast, Kaluga Oblast, Novgorod Oblast, Republic of Karelia, Kirov Oblast, Komi Republic, Kursk Oblast, Mordovia, Murmansk Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Penza Oblast, Perm Krai, Pskov Oblast, Rostov Oblast, Ryazan Oblast, Saint Petersburg, Samara Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Tambov Oblast, Tatarstan, Tula Oblast, Udmurtia, Volgograd Oblast, Vologda Oblast, Voronezh Oblast,

Siberia: Altai Krai, Buryatia, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Chita Oblast,Irkutsk Oblast, Kemerovo Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, parts of Kurgan Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast, Omsk Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Tomsk Oblast, Tuva, Tyumen Oblast, Ulyanovsk Oblast, Yamal-Nenets,

Soviet Far East: Amur Oblast, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kamchatka Oblast, Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, Primorsky Krai, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Sakhalin Oblast

China: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei and Beijing

Eastern Asia: South Korea, North Korea, Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku, Kyūshū, Okinawa Island

Europe

Northern Europe: Channel Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Ireland with Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom

Middle Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia,

East Europe: Belarus, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Ukraine

Southeastern Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia

Southwestern Europe: Andorra, Azores, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Gibraltar, Portugal, Spain

West Europe: Belgium, France, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Switzerland,

South Europe: Albania, Chios, Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Dodecanese, Greece, Ikaria, Italy, Karpathos, Lesbos, Samos Island, San Marino, Sardinia, Sicily with Malta, Asiatic Turkey and Turkey-in-Europe, Vatican City

Oceania

Australasia: Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain, Warren, New Zealand

Range maps for continents

Predators

The seeds of Common groundsel is a good green food for Canaries and Finches and it is available all year round.

Senecio vulgaris seed has been found in the droppings of sparrows, and seedlings have been raised from the excreta of various birds. Seed has also been found in cow manure.

Some Lepidoptera species eat many of the Senecio genus; additional studies via electrophysiological recordings have shown that the taste sensilla of the Cinnabar moth larvae respond (get excited) specifically to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids which all Senecio are known to contain.

Moths and caterpillars

The Senecio genus also are host to other insects:

Beetles

Ragwort flea beetle (Longitarsus jacobaeae)
Longitarsus gracilis (family Coleoptera species Chrysomelidae)

Flies

Seed flies (Diptera: Muscoidea)

*Ragwort seed fly (Anthomyiidae, Botanophila seneciella)

Gall flies (Diptera: Tephritidae):

And other insects that are not listed here.

The ragwort flea beetle and ragwort seed fly have been approved and released for Senecio control in California, Australia and elsewhere.

Fungus Most Senecio, including S. squalidus are susceptible to rust and other fungus and mildews:

Rust fungus Uredinales

*Coleosporium tussilaginis - stems and leaves (Coleosporiaceae)

*Puccinia lagenophorae - leaves only (Pucciniaceae)

*Bremia lactucae

White rust Peronosporales

*Albugo tragopogonis - (Albuginaceae)

* some of the species Peronosporaceae - (Albuginaceae)

Sac fungus Ascochyta, Pezizomycetes

*Ascochyta senecionicola - (Coelomycete)

Groundsel Mildew Erysiphales

*Golovinomyces cichoracearum var. fischeri

Powdery Mildew Erysiphales

*Podosphaera fusca - (Erysiphaceae)

Black root rot Microascales

* some of the family Incertae sedis

And other fungus that are not listed here.

Reputation for being noxious and toxic

Senecio vulgaris has been listed as a noxious weed, being both non-indigenous to most if not all of the Americas and having a reputation for being hepatotoxic to livestock and to humans.

Toxic versus medicinal

Human

As a plant which is reported to be both poisonous for human ingestion and also medicinal; much of the contradiction can be found by closely reviewing the words that are used and the dose (amount) of the poisonous substance which is ingested to prove either claim. All species of the genus Senecio contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (e.g., senecionine) a substance that when a human has chronic exposure can cause irreversible liver damage.

Common groundsel as a medicinal herb does not seem to be recommended very often since 1931 when it was recommended as a diaphoretic, an antiscorbutic, a purgative, a diuretic and an anthelmintic which was a demotion as it was previously suggested for the expelling of gravel of the kidneys and reins by Pedanius Dioscorides in the 70s-90s, for use as poultices by John Gerard in the late 1500s and as a cure for epilepsy by Nicholas Culpeper in the 1600s. More current information is contradictory about the dangers of the ingestion of Groundsel. A heavily referenced paper from 1989 suggests that the response is immediate and gives pre-ambulatory care recommendations. A Canadian poisonous plants information database references a paper from 1990 in presenting this prenatal warning: "In a case of prenatal exposure, a mother ingested tea containing an estimated 0.343 milligram of senecionine, resulting in fatal veno-occlusive disease in a newborn infant." Information about the pyrrolizidine alkaloids, the substance present in Senecio vulgaris is much less contradictory and all warn of accumulation of the alkaloid.

Certain pyrrolizidine alkaloids are non-toxic precursors that are converted to toxic metabolites in the body in a process called toxification

Livestock

Linnaeus is cited to have claimed that "goats and swine eat this common plant freely, cows being not partial to it and horses and sheep declining to touch it, but not only are caged birds fond of it (the seeds), but its leaves and seeds afford food for many of our wild species (rabbits were given as an example)." More recent studies claim that the lethal amount that cattle or horses need to consume is 7% of their body weight (example: would need to be consumed by a cow weighing ). Lesser amounts cause the liver to lose function but is not apparent until the animal is stressed (by new feed or location, pregnancy, a different toxin, etc). Sheep and goats have rumen bacteria that detoxify the alkaloids and are able to consume twice their body weight of this and other species of genus Senecio. The alkaloids responsible are not destroyed by drying or by fermentation in silage.

Introduced versus invasive

Introduced species become invasive when they compete with natives or with crops. Senecio vulgaris is not known to be a strong competitor but it has been known to reduce mint production. There is evidence that it is not a strong invasive and sometimes protective of critically endangered native plants.

Control

The approximately long pappus seeds of Senecio vulgaris, each plant capable of producing 25,000 or more seeds (1,700 seeds per plant are more likely) with three generations of the plant per year; seeds which are widely dispersed by the wind, have been identified as a contaminant of cereal and vegetable seeds and a poison to some livestock; there is some inspiration to understand the growth stages and determine some control methods.

Cultivation: Cultivation with the hand or tiller is a recommended method of controlling Senecio vulgaris from growing in gardens and planting fields; cultivate to a depth of . The plant does prefer to take root in disturbed soils, so cultivation rids new plants but also buries and stirs up new seeds so the cultivation needs to be repeated at 14-day intervals. Seeds can still mature even when the plant has been killed; seed from plants cut in flower had germination levels of 35%. Groundsel seed numbers increased in soil during a 2-year set-aside left fallow but not when there was a sown grass cover. The weed cannot live on grazed, trampled or mowed sites.

Biological: The pathogen rust fungus or Puccinia lagenophorae and the Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae have both been used and studied in an attempt to control infestation of Senecio vulgaris. One study showed that rust fungus infected Senecio vulgaris survived and actually used more of the available soil nutrients. The cinnabar moth eats groundsel between June and August, but the seeds germinate and the plant grows as soon as the ground is warm enough (and after a warm rain), making this an insufficient control almost everywhere groundsel can be found.

Chemical: Herbicides designed to control broadleaf plants are affective for controlling Senecio vulgaris in cereals and forage grasses but also will "control" broadleaf crops, such as mint, forage legumes, strawberries, carrots and all other non-grass crops. There is also evidence that the plant develops an immunity to the chemical control.

Other: Groundsel seedlings with 2-6 leaves are tolerant of flame weeding but the seeds are susceptible to soil solarization.

Subspecies which are synonyms

Senecio vulgaris subsp. denticulatus (O.F. Muell.) P.D. Sell
Senecio vulgaris var. dubius (Ledeb.) Franch., 1883
Senecio vulgaris var. dubius Trautv., 1866
Senecio vulgaris var. hibernicus Syme
Senecio vulgaris var. vulgaris
Senecio vulgaris-humilis Batt. & Trab.

References

External links

UNEP-WCMC Search UNEP-WCMC Species Database search results Senecio vulgaris L.. World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) Search. United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved on 2008-02-01..
Department of Pathology, Physiology and Weed Service Common Groundsel: Senecio vulgaris. Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide. Virginia Tech College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Department of Pathology, Physiology and Weed Service. Retrieved on 2008-01-29..
Copyright © by the Regents of the University of California UC/JEPS: Jepson Manual treatment for SENECIO vulgaris. TREATMENT FROM THE JEPSON MANUAL. Regents of the University of California and University and Jepson Herbaria (UC/JEPS). Retrieved on 2008-02-01..
University of California, Integrated Pest Management Identification: Weed Photo Gallery: Common groundsel. How to Manage Pests. Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. Retrieved on 2008-02-01..
University of Tennessee Herbarium - TENN Results for Senecio vulgaris. TENN Vascular Plants - Database. University of Tennessee at Martin. Retrieved on 2008-02-01..

NatureServe Comprehensive Report Species - Senecio vulgaris - L. An Online Encyclopedia of Life. The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved on 2008-02-01..
Calflora Senecio vulgaris. Information on California plants for education, research and conservation. The Calflora Database. Retrieved on 2008-01-27..
Henry Walloon Groundsel Senecio vulgaris. Life On An Oxfordshire Lawn. Retrieved on 2008-01-29..
Stephen Mifsud Groundsel. Retrieved on 2008-02-01..
Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium Plant details page Senecio vulgaris L.. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Retrieved on 2008-02-05..
Wisconsin State Herbarium Senecio vulgaris L.. WI Vascular Plants. Wisflora: WISCONSIN BOTANICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM. Retrieved on 2008-02-05..
Starr Senecio vulgaris Common groundsel (Asterceae). Plants of Hawaii. Retrieved on 2008-02-07..
Dr. Alan J. Silverside Erysiphe cichoracearum DC. var. cichoracearum. BIODIVERSITY REFERENCE. Biological Sciences, University of Paisley. (2001). Retrieved on 2008-02-08..