THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 105 



Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris L.). 

 (COMPOSITE: Daisy Family.) 



Popular Description. A very common annual on cultivated and waste 

 ground. From 6 to 12 inches high ; its stems are furrowed and bearing half- 

 clasping pinnatifid leaves. Its flower-heads are composed of a number of 

 small yellow flowers which ripen quickly and are distributed by the wind. 

 Each plant keeps on flowering during several months of the year, and it is 

 usual in spring and summer to find heads in all stages of development upon 

 the same plant. 



Botanical Description. 



An erect, nearly glabrous annual. Leaves iregularly pinnatifid and toothed. 

 Flower-heads in close terminal corymbs or clusters. Involucre cylindrical. 

 Florets all tubular and bisexual. 



Vernacular Names. The name Groundsel is in almost universal use in 

 Britain, and has doubtless been employed for many more than a thousand 

 years. It is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and the syllable " sel " is from a root 

 signifying " to swallow," since the plant was considered valuable when 

 taken internally for " a running of the eye." 



" In several parts of England it is called Simson, apparently a corruption 

 of the Latin Senecio., perhaps through the medium of the French Senesson." 

 (Sowerby.) 



Where Found. It is a native of Europe and Russian Asia. 



" Everyone knows the common Groundsel, a weed found in all kinds of 

 cultivated ground in Britain, as well as on banks by roadsides and similar 

 places." (Sowerby.) This also expresses the situations in which it is 

 found in New South Wales. Although abundant near houses, it is not an 

 aggressive weed, and can certainly not be looked upon as a serious pest by 

 the agriculturist. 



Native Senecios. We have many native Senecios, there being no less than 

 eighteen species in New South Wales, without including varieties, but it is 

 generally reported that stock will not touch them. 



On one which in the Armidale district had become so plentiful as to 

 exclude almost every other plant, I reported as follows a few years ago : 



" I have never heard of a native Senecio (which belongs to the Daisy 

 family) being reported as injurious to animals. An allied plant, Senecio 

 Jacobwa, though a weed, is eaten by sheep in England without injury, 

 although in New Zealand it is reputed as inducing cirrhosis of the liver in stock. 



" In the present case what has probably happened is this : The ordinary 

 herbaceous vegetation (including grasses) edible by stock may be mainly 

 composed of annuals depending on the annual production of seeds, and 

 consequently not able to withstand cropping by animals beyond a certain 

 point. 



" There are certain plants, of which the present one is an example, which 

 provide themselves with a defence against herbivorous animals in the shape 

 of bitter or acrid or other deleterious properties, or strong smelling oils, or 

 resinous exudations, or a covering of hairs or spines. These, being not inter- 

 fered with by animals, go on to the seeding stage and take the place of the 

 fodder plants which are either eaten out or have not been permitted to 

 propagate their kind. The ripening of this weed-seed may of course take 

 place some distance away, but makes the presence of seedlings from this 

 weed-seed obvious to a lessee, when he sees them actually spring up on his 

 property, where they have taken the place of the forage plants which have 

 been eaten out. 



