There are many stands of tall plants with yellow daisy-like flowers around the valley’s fields and hedges at this time of year; some are Fleabane but the taller ones are Ragwort. Ragwort has a mixed reputation - it is poisonous but it plays an important part in supporting insect biodiversity - so what should we do with it?
We have five different Ragworts in the valley, Common, Oxford, Marsh, Hoary and Silver. Their leaves are very different but the flowers are the typical daisy style, a head of tiny florets surrounded by a ring of florets with ray petals. This gives their family its name Asteraceae which translates as Star Flowers.
All the Ragworts are poisonous to livestock, particularly horses, and farmers do not want it growing in their pastures. It remains poisonous even when it has been killed and it will ruin a whole crop of hay or silage. Just like a dandelion, it produces a head of feathery achenes that allow it to spread on the wind. It germinates easily if it finds bare ground, and horse or cattle hoof marks in a field give it an opening. It is difficult to control Ragwort with herbicides without causing damage to other plants and the best thing to do is to get in early and pull it by hand before it builds a large population in a field.
If you don’t have livestock then Ragwort should be allowed to grow because it is an important food plant for over 200 species of insects and other invertebrates, most famously the caterpillars of the Cinnabar moth. The adult moth is spectacular with shiny red and black wings. The caterpillars have alternating yellow and black stripes, a warning to birds and other predators that they are poisonous, having eaten nothing but the Ragwort leaves.
Apart from the Cinnabar, there are several leaf beetles that also depend on Ragwort, and the nectar and pollen rich flowers are a favourite for many butterflies, moths, bees and flies. A colony of adult Burnet Moths cluster on the flower heads of the Silver Ragwort that grows around Jacob’s Ladder. Silver Ragwort is silver because it is a seaside specialist that grows in a Devon and Cornwall colony from Sidmouth to St Austell. Like several of the other plants in the beach garden, the leaves have a fine coating of wax scales to help cope with the sea air and harsh seaside sun.
As the name suggests, you are most likely to come across Common Ragwort, but Marsh Ragwort was very common around Sidmouth in Victorian times, particularly on the boggy areas of Salcombe Hill and Mutter’s Moor. It is much rarer now as farmland has been drained, but it can still be seen on the edge of Mutter’s Moor above the golf course.
Hoary or Hairy Ragwort prefers chalky ground and it grows along the coast path near the Donkey Sanctuary which has a remnant of the chalk that appears in the cliffs at Beer.
Oxford Ragwort is an Italian species that grows in the volcanic soils on Mount Etna. It was introduced as a novelty in the Oxford Botanic gardens in the early 18th century. It escaped from the garden and, in the 19th century, it found a home along railway lines where the seeds were spread by the wind stirred up by trains which is probably how it arrived in Sidmouth. It seems to like it here and has been recorded in several places away from the old station.
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