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Senecio vulgaris

Common name:	Groundsel	Family:	Compositae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	All parts of the plant are poisonous to many mammals, including humans. The toxin affects the liver and has a cumulative affect[9, 65]. Some mammals, such as rabbits, do not seem to be harmed by the plant, and will often seek it out[4]. Various birds also eat the leaves and seeds[4].
Range:	Europe, including Britain, south and east from Scandanavia to N. Africa and temperate Asia.
Habitat:	Found along roadsides and waste places, it is also a common weed of cultivated land, succeeding on most soils but avoiding shade[7, 9, 17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	2

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Boton D'Or [E], Common Groundsel [H,P,E,L], Ground Glutton [H], Groundsel [E,L], Grundy Swallow [H], Hierba Cana [E], Kanaryaotu [E], Klein Kruiskruid [D], Old-man-in-the-spring [B], Sention [H], Shikh Al Rabee' [E], Simson [H],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	vulgaris = common
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Asterales. Renamed to Asteraceae -- Aster family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Belgium Britain Europe Iraq Spain Turkey
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: Colorado.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 0.3m by 0.15m . It is hardy to zone 6 and is not frost tender. It is in flower all year, and the seeds ripen all year. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. The plant is self-fertile. It is noted for attracting wildlife. We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 2/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in heavy clay and nutritionally poor soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil. The plant can tolerate maritime exposure.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Leaves.

Leaves - cooked or raw[7, 105]. The young leaves have been used in many areas as a salad, though this is very inadvisable, see the notes on toxicity at the top of the page[7].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Anthelmintic Antiscorbutic Diaphoretic Diuretic Emmenagogue Homeopathy Poultice Purgative.

Groundsel has a long history of herbal use and, although not an officinal plant, it is still often used by herbalists[4]. The whole herb is anthelmintic, antiscorbutic, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue and purgative[4, 9, 21, 54]. It is often used as a poultice and is said to be useful in treating sickness of the stomach, whilst a weak infusion is used as a simple and easy purgative[4]. The plant can be harvested in May and dried for later use, or the fresh juice can be extracted and used as required[4]. Use with caution[21]. This plant should not be used by pregnant women[7], see also the notes above on toxicity.
A homeopathic remedy is made from the plant[9]. It is used in the treatment of menstrual disorders and nose bleeds[9].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

A common weed of cultivated land, it does not require cultivation.
Groundsel is a good food plant for the caterpillars of many butterfly and moth species, and is one of only two species that provide food for cinnabar moth caterpillars.
One report states that this plant was formerly cultivated as a food crop for livestock[54]! Since the plant is a cumulative toxin this use is most questionable.

Propagation

Seed - it doesn't need any encouragement from us.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
Images from the CalPhoto database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[7] Chiej. R. Encyclopaedia of Medicinal Plants. MacDonald 1984 ISBN 0-356-10541-5
Covers plants growing in Europe. Also gives other interesting information on the plants. Good photographs.

[9] Launert. E. Edible and Medicinal Plants. Hamlyn 1981 ISBN 0-600-37216-2
Covers plants in Europe. a drawing of each plant, quite a bit of interesting information.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[21] Lust. J. The Herb Book. Bantam books 1983 ISBN 0-553-23827-2
Lots of information tightly crammed into a fairly small book.

[54] Hatfield. A. W. How to Enjoy your Weeds. Frederick Muller Ltd 1977 ISBN 0-584-10141-4
Interesting reading.

[65] Frohne. D. and Pfänder. J. A Colour Atlas of Poisonous Plants. Wolfe 1984 ISBN 0723408394
Brilliant. Goes into technical details but in a very readable way. The best work on the subject that I've come across so far.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
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