Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various plants in the composite family, chiefly of the genera Senecio and Packera, having yellow flower heads. S. jacobaea, a European species poisonous to livestock, is widely naturalized in North America and elsewhere.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The name of several plants of the genus Senecio; primarily, S. Jacobæa of Europe and northern Asia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A name given to several species of the composite genus Senecio.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a number of wild flowering plants with yellow flowers in the family Asteraceae, mostly belonging to Senecio and related genera.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun American ragwort with yellow flowers
  • noun widespread European weed having yellow daisylike flowers; sometimes an obnoxious weed and toxic to cattle if consumed in quantity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the ragged shape of its leaves.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From rag +‎ wort.

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Examples

  • I thought that she might have had ingested ragwort, which is extremely poisonous, often fatal for horses.

    Second Wind Francis, Dick 1999

  • If the ragwort is a long way from grazing livestock (for example in the middle of woodland) then it does not need to be reported to the survey.

    Horsetalk.co.nz Headlines 2010

  • While it may not win the fight against ragwort on its 'own, it still has a part to play when used with other ragwort control agents such as ragwort flea beetle and ragwort plume moth.

    Museum Blogs 2009

  • Some of these hybrids, such as ragwort (Jones 2000), blackberry, rhododendron, lantana, old man's beard and spartina, have become noxious weeds in many countries (although one of my friends says concrete is actually the worst noxious weed).

    remote central 2008

  • It is important to go in as soon as possible as you do not want poisonous plants, such as ragwort, present in cutting or grazing leys. "

    FWi - All News 2010

  • It is important to go in as soon as possible as you do not want poisonous plants, such as ragwort, present in cutting or grazing leys. "

    FWi - All News 2010

  • The splash of yellow in the foreground is ragwort, I think.

    Swanlike boat, boatlike swan 2009

  • These last few have been days to hold on to: bright sunshine through fat-bottomed clouds; ringlet butterflies flickering over flowering grasses; yellow-and-black-banded cinnabar moth caterpillars twitching as they spun threads to tie themselves to ragwort; bright pink lip-gloss heads of pyramidal orchids – these things once observed becoming dearly held.

    Country diary: Wenlock Edge 2011

  • A passing comma butterfly floated into view and settled on a yellow ragwort inflorescence, shuffled around until its outspread wings were angled perfectly to absorb the sun's rays and then uncoiled its tongue to feed.

    Country Diary: Durham city 2011

  • In these Lammas days, the flowers of the sun are bird's-foot trefoil, meliots, medicks, St John's wort, yellow-wort, ragwort and hawkbits.

    Country diary: Wenlock Edge 2011

Comments

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  • Alluring, but toxic to, goats.

    November 9, 2007