People seem to believe that autumn means that plants are slowing down and ending their growth for the year. While this is true of many plants, there are others busily producing new growth. One of the most noticeable at Blue Jay Barrens is ragworts. This is a cluster of new leaves produced by the Golden Ragwort,
Senecio aureus.
I love the look of fresh new leaves and those produced during cool weather seem to exhibit a special vibrancy. Here is an especially attractive leaf, with a deep green color and serrated margin. This leaf is busily capturing the sun’s energy for storage so it will be ready to tall spikes of yellow flowers in the spring.
Some of the summer leaves are still holding on, but they don’t seem to have the resistance to frost displayed by the new growth. I’m sure this leaf, now blemished and in decline, did its service to the plant through the summer months. I wonder if there is actually a chemical difference between cold season leaves and those of summer.
Another of the ragwort clan is
Senecio obovatus, Round-leaved Ragwort. This is the host plant of the Northern Metalmark butterfly that I posted about last June. I need this plant to thrive so I can support more butterflies.
Late season growth doesn’t mean there aren’t insects ready to make a meal of the plant. It looks like some type of leaf miner was at work here. A little bit of leaf damage isn’t going to hurt the plant. A complete defoliation event could result in the plant using all of its stored energy in regrowing foliage at the expense of flowers.
Golden Ragwort, Senecio aurea, has been conspicuous as basal leaves through the entire winter. Now it has produced a tall stalk topped by a cluster of yellow flowers. Ragworts produce the typical composite type flower with a central cluster of simplified disk flowers and an outer border or showy ray flowers. The Golden Ragwort flower head is small and requires close examination to pick out the intricate details.
Golden Ragwort is primarily a plant of the field where they can blanket the landscape with a mass of yellow blooms. Unfortunately, Golden Ragwort is often confused with some of the annual weedy mustards that cover disturbed ground like that found in crop fields. People are likely to brand this plant an undesirable weed just because they have never bothered to give it a close examination.
This is a perennial plant that can remain green through any season. Most of the leaves occur at the base of the plant, so loss of the flower stalk does no harm to the plant. As the season progresses, summer flowers and tall grasses will hide the ragworts. It won’t be until the following winter that the green of the basal leaves again catches the eye.
The Golden Ragwort leaf has lobes on either side of the stem attachment that give it a heart shaped appearance. The very similar Round-leaf Golden Ragwort has leaves that taper down to the stem attachment. Both of these species are common at Blue Jay Barrens, but they seldom occur together in the same location.
The flowers remain attractive for many weeks as new buds develop and open. The stems and unopened buds have a soft pubescence that gives them a cobwebby appearance. This seems to wear off as the plant ages.
As far as I know, this Plume Moth doesn’t have any specific ties to Golden Ragwort. I just think this is a really neat moth and since it landed beside me as I was taking shots of the flowers, I took its picture and stuck it in here for those people who really prefer animals over plants.
