How to recognise Ragwort

(Photograph courtesy My Equestrian World)

Most of us realise that Ragwort needs to be eliminated from our horse's pasture due to the risk of poisoning . It's a noxious weed that quickly grows from the small "rosette" above to the tall flowering plant pictued below. In this post we're going to show you lots of photographs of the Ragwort plant to help aid in indentification.

 

Identification can sometimes be hindered when the plant has been stripped by caterpillars

 however if you see these stripey little caterpillars munching their way through a plant it's more than likely Ragwort, the Cinnabar Moth's caterpillars favourite food.

The Ragwort plant grows in a cirular cluster of leaves often described as a rosette,

(Photograph courtesy My Equestrian World)

as the Ragwort grows the leaves become wavier, as you can see in the photographs the adult leaves below are quite different to those of the young plant above.

The daisy like yellow flowers  appear from May to October

and if allowed to go to seed each plant can produce 150,000 seeds, with a 70% germination rate. 

 Ragwort seeds can lie dormant in the ground for as long as 20 years.

So it's importnat to remove Ragwort from your pasture before it goes to seed, ideally at the rosette stage.