Wildlife Watch: Ragwort

Ragwort.

There's a strange love-hate relationship with this biennial plant in the countryside. There are nineteen species to be found in the countryside and although this includes the likes of Oxford ragwort, brought here by the Victorians, you will most likely encounter Common ragwort. A native plant but one that is very much treated like a foreign invader with much time invested in removing it. The reason? Well it's pretty toxic, particularly to horses and cattle. This isn't much of an issue when it's alive as it has a bitter taste and grazers are unlikely to eat it unless the whole field is jaundiced with the plant or overgrazed. But when a field is cut for hay ragwort loses its bitterness whilst retaining its poisonous qualities.

Interestingly, a green dye can be made from its leaves and a yellow one from it's flowers.

However it is also quite an important plant from a wildlife point of view. It provides a habitat and food for at least 77 species of insect, 30 of which use ragwort exclusively, and it is a significant food source for 22 of the remainder. This includes some scarce species such as the Sussex emerald moth and Picture-winged fly but one of the best known is the Cinnabar moth.

This is a striking black and red day-flying moth. With red lines running along the outside its black forewings each splodged with two heavy red spots; its scarlet underwings peek though underneath. It's one of the most colourful moths we have in the UK and often mistaken as a butterfly as a result. Its caterpillars are equally distinctive, wasp-like with yellow and black stripes to warn predators of their poisonous nature (they absorb toxins from the plant)

Although it also uses the plant Groundsel as a foodplant for its caterpillars, ragwort is significant in it's survival as it provides toxins to make the caterpillar and moth unpalatable and is also a much larger plant for caterpillars to feed on, meaning more caterpillars survive.

Studies looking at Cinnabar moths have shown population declines due to the persecution of its foodplant ragwort so it may appear strange that many conservation organisation tasks are focused on removing what is a native and ecologically important plant.

Well it's largely so a hay crop can be taken. This is a way of managing levels of nutrients of grasslands. The hay itself can then either be used to provide food for a countryside organisation's livestock (as grazing is used to manage grasslands as well) or to sell to make some money. Ragwort can also be an issue if it takes over an area as it is a quick coloniser of bare ground and can take over and dominate some fields, this is more of an issue if next to other people's hay meadows as the seeds are wind dispersed.

Outside of these circumstances though I believe we should live and let live and leave ragwort and the insects that depend on it to get along with things out in the rest of the countryside. Sure, control ragwort where it's likely to be an issue but not look to eradicate it.

Lawn bioblitz & Wildlife Watch: The teasel

So this is the second year of a section of our lawn being under a hay-cut (however much my dad grumbles about it) so it's time to go out for another bioblitz and see what's there. It's a little later in the year than the one I carried out last year and most plants are in a post-flowering stage so I may have missed a few (last year's survey was in June as opposed to August).

Last year's count was 24 species of plant which you can find HERE.

This year's list:

1) Cat's ear
2) Dandelion
3) Smooth hawks beard
4) Spear Thistle
5) Meadow bent
6) Rye grass
7) St John's Wort
8) Ground ivy
9) Red clover
10) Wild strawberry
11) Creeping buttercup
12) Ribwort plantain
13) Cow parsley
14) Hop trefoil
15) Teasel
16) Wood avens
17) Daisy
18) Primrose
19) Cowslip
20) Unknown grass similar to wheat

The list looks very different this year owing to it being later in the year with many of last year's species not being recorded at all. Four less species were recorded which may seem like a decrease in biodiversity but is due to the survey taking place later in the year when fewer species are flowering and hence not visible. It was good to see a cowslip flowering on the bank earlier in the year and there are a couple of other species present that weren't spotted last year, notably Teasel which is a large flowering plant that I'm going to look at for the Wildlife Watch - of which there will be two this month as I missed July's. I will aim to carry out next year's count a little earlier in the season as I know I've missed a few species such as the buttercups this year.


Wildlife Watch
The Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)

The teasel is a striking architectural-looking plant, growing up to 2 metres, with a prickly stem and unusual spiny cone-shaped flowerhead containing small lilac flowers arranged in a ring. These florets appear as two bands in the centre of the cone and migrate outwards towards the edges during the July-August flowering season.

It's leaves too are strange. Arranged opposite one another they form a 'cup' at their bases and often collect water. These pools of water help prevent sap-sucking insects from climbing the stems. Studies of teasels have also shown that they are partially carnivorous, absorbing nutrients from insects that have drowned in these leaf-pools leading to greater seed production. The teasel is a biennial and only becomes a tall plant in its second year. It spends its first as a basal rosette close to the ground distinguishable by short curved spines on it's bumpy leaves. 

It has wildlife value as a nectar source for insects such as bumblebees and butterflies in the summer and the seeds provide an important food source for goldfinches in the autumn and winter months. The name derives from its use to 'tease' cloth as it was used to full in cloth production.