Botanical Name: Senecio jacobaea
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae) –Daisy
Other Names: Fairies horses, tansy ragwort
Habitat: Hedges, roadsides, river embankments,
meadows, pastures, wastelands, sand dunes, coastal shingle.
Description: Perennial or biennial 120cm/4ft tall,
usually hairless, short stock root without stolens. Stems: furrowed, branched
above Rosette of large divided leaves, alternate, pinnately lobed. Flowers bright
yellow 15-25mm daisy like, flat topped clusters June- October. Almost hairless
Part used: Aerial parts
Harvesting: July-August
Actions: Astringent, expectorant, rubefacient
Constituents: Essential oil, rutin, alkaloid,
mucilage
Volatile oil: germacrene D, 1-undecene, 1 nonene, myrcene, trans-ocimene,
beta caryophyllene
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids: seneciphylline, senecionine, jacoline,
jaconine, jacobine, jacozine
Other Notes: Poisonous to horses and other livestock.
Regarded as noxious weed
Main food plant of the cinnabar moth – a day flying species
with black and gold larvae
Cautions: Do not take internally