Yesterday’s postponed New Year’s Plant Hunt happened today. I went for a long (ish) walk around my home village/town to see as many species of plants in flower as I could. All this is part of a national scheme to see what plants are in flower in the middle of winter ( https://nyph.bsbi.org/ ). Obviously not masses. I saw seven species in flower, not bad for a non-botanist. The weirdest one was Marsh-marigold which really shouldn’t be in flower until late February or early March. But today’s species is another humble one.
What: Groundsel Senecio vulgaris subsp. vulgaris L.
When: 2nd January 2020. Record submitted using bespoke ‘app’ to the BSBI (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland)
Where: Milton Drive, Poynton, Cheshire VC58 (This is a nominal ‘vice-county’ used as a permanent county that ignores political county boundary changes to give stability to botanical records throughout the years, VC58 refers to the historic country boundary of Cheshire, but not all VC’s do this, some split old counties into sections).
Who saw it: Me
Is it larger than a blackbird? No
What is it? A small insignificant looking member of the daisy family. It looks a bit like a small dandelion or ragwort that ca’t really be bothered to flower properly. The petals seem to barely poke through creating a thick paint-brush effect. They appear to like growing out of the base of walls and in cracks in the pavement. A pioneer plant definitely (ie: one that colonises an area first). Their seeds are a lot like dandelions, white fluffy things that are transported on the breeze – and presumably end up in pavement cracks.
A fact I have recently learned about this species: The latin genus name of Senecio means ‘old man’ on the account of the seed head looking like a bald shiny scalp when after all the seeds have dispersed. So Senicio vulgaris when directly translated into English means Common Old Man (Mabey, 1996). Ref: Mabey, R (1996) Flora Britannica Sinclair-Stevenson, London
Is it charismatic in my opinion? No. It grows half-heartedly in cracks in the ground in between cigarette ends, chewing gums, and dog do. Although you have to admire it’s tenacity.
A Species a Day 