Today, yesterday and tomorrow as well as a few other days I will be roguing - the act of identifying and removing undesired plants from agricultural fields (the definition taken from Wikipedia) - ragwort plants.
Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) is native to the United Kingdom and despite being of importance to the native invertebrate's habitat, it can be dangerous to livestock.
The plant contains a form of alkaloid toxin (pyrrolizidine) that may act as a poison to agricultural livestock including avian, bovine, cervidae, equine, and swine members. This inability to safely consume and digest this toxin by these herbivores can lead to problems if the plant is combined with hay, haylage or silage.
The plant also provides a site for the egg laying as well as the food supply for the plant's main consumer - the Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) - and
the flowers support the insects who drink the
nectar, especially in times when other crop flowers are scarce. These include 2 bee species, butterflies, Conopid,
flies, hoverflies, a minimum of 40 Noctuid moths, a minimum
of 30 species of solitary bees, and a minimum of 18 species of solitary wasps.
More tomorrow, have you any questions?
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