Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several plants of the very large genus Senecio in the composite family, having yellow flower heads, especially S. aureus of eastern North America. S. jacobaea, a European species poisonous to livestock, is widely naturalized in North America.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The name of several plants of the genus Senecio; primarily, S. Jacobæa of Europe and northern Asia. This is an erect herb from 2 to 4 feet high, with bright-yellow radiate heads in a compact terminal corymb; the leaves are irregularly lobed and toothed, whence the name. Also called benweed, cankerweed, St. -James-wort, kadle-dock, jacobæa, etc.; in Ireland fairies'-horse. Sometimes
ragweed .
Wiktionary
- n. Any of a number of wild flowering plants with yellow flowers in the family Asteraceae, mostly belonging to Senecio and related genera.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A name given to several species of the composite genus Senecio.
WordNet 3.0
- n. American ragwort with yellow flowers
- n. widespread European weed having yellow daisylike flowers; sometimes an obnoxious weed and toxic to cattle if consumed in quantity
Etymologies
- From rag + wort. (Wiktionary)
- From the ragged shape of its leaves. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I thought that she might have had ingested ragwort, which is extremely poisonous, often fatal for horses.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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).”
“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. ”
“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.”
“The splash of yellow in the foreground is ragwort, I think.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Tall grassland is scattered with hawkweed, ragwort, wild carrot and melilot flowers, along with clumps of bird's-foot trefoil, lucerne and goat's rue, and there are regular uprisings of brambles and wild rose, and sprawls of sallow and birch scrub.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ragwort’.
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Worts and all
I have in mind the worts associated with a green thumb rather than a green beer - but as you can see by the name, I'll accept anything you have to offer.
butterwort, spiderwort, quillwort, woundwort, nipplewort, bellwort, liverwort, milkwort, water pennywort, navelwort, toothwort, wort and 128 more...
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Blue remembered hills
Flora, fauna and other things common in the time and place where I grew up
millipede, dock leaf, snowdrop, nettle, ragwort, oxeye, moss, bindweed, lichen, hay, forget-me-not, bluebell and 62 more...
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biology
the APG II phylogenetic classification plus various other new biological terms (new to me or just newly invented)
lamiids, campanulids, fabids, malvids, euangiosperms, nipplewort, redshank, selfheal, weigela, hebe, basalmost, echeveria and 58 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ragwort.
yarb Alluring, but toxic to, goats. Nov 9, 2007