| Description | Common Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) An alien plant that has become an aggressive weed in the garden. |
|---|---|
| Plant Type | Weeds, Site author's observations |
| Sunlight | full to shade |
| Moisture | average |
| Soil & Site | average |
| Flowers | cylindrical flower-heads, 1/4 inch long and 1/8 inch across, in close terminal clusters or corymbs, the florets yellow, will flower late into the fall, never completely open |
| Fruit | downy heads of seeds (achene), each seed being crowned by little tufts of hair, each plant capable of producing 1,700 seeds |
| Leaves | alternate, margins vary considerably from irregular coarse teeth to pinnately divided with irregular jagged lobes |
| Stems | hollow stems |
| Roots | short tap root |
| Dimensions | A short plant that I have not seen it over a foot, reported to get 16". |
| Maintenance | pull, pull, pull, preemergent herbicide |
| Propagation | seeds |
| Native Site | it is an alien to the USA |
| Misc Facts | alien, AKA: Ragwort, Grimsel, Grinsel, Grundsel, Simson, Birdseed |
| Author's Notes | As the summer progresses new seedlings will be constantly germinating in the garden producing almost a continual bloom and more seeds. To break the cycle the new plants must be constantly pulled. They are shallow rooted and are easy to pull. It once was a major problem in my gardens. After a few seasons of continually pulling they are now manageable. |
| Notes & Reference | #08- Peterson's Guide to Wild Flowers (Peterson McKenny), #81-Weeds of Northern US and Canada (Royer and Dickinson) |
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