A little research project to examine variations of Ragwort.
Light showers.
I have two members of the Ragwort (Senecio) family that grow locally: Senecio jacobaea (Common Ragwort) and Senecio aquaticus (Marsh Ragwort).
Common Ragwort has deeply-divided leaves and black-tipped bracts behind the flowers. This is usually found at path edges and in fields:
Marsh Ragwort has a large leaf-tip lobe and the bracts have no dark tip. Always found near, or in, water.
Some specimens have the leaf-tip lobe more divided and the bract tips are slightly dark. I take this to be the hybrid Senecio x ostenfeldii. This is found at path edges and near water.
Typical.....I was so absorbed by the Hemichroa crocea sawfly larva (bottom left), that I completely missed the new sawfly larva (at the top right of the picture) until I was cropping the image.
Notice the fungal rust.
The Willow Cabbage gall is evident on every tree. Even those leaves have the fungal rust on them. What with sawflies, rusts, leaf-beetles and galls, trees have a hard time of it.
