Common ragwort
Poisonous yellow pasture weed rich in late-summer nectar and pollen; needs care because its pyrrolizidine alkaloids can pass into honey.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Good
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Pollen colour
- Height
- 0.3-1.2 m
- Life cycle
- Biennial
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Formerly known as Senecio jacobaea, this species is a biennial or short-lived perennial of pastures, road and railway verges, dunes and waste ground. Its many bright yellow heads, gathered in flat-topped clusters, offer abundant nectar and orange-yellow pollen in late summer, and honey bees work them intensively.
Flowering
It flowers from June to October, most heavily in July–August. Mown plants flower again.
Honey and pollen
Honey from this plant is bright yellow, pungent-smelling and bitter-sweet, and crystallises quickly. The whole plant contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which pass into both honey and pollen; where ragwort is abundant, late-summer honey has been measured exceeding the limit values.
Note for the beekeeper
It is a poisonous weed that damages the liver of livestock. Where it is common, harvest the spring and early-summer honey before the ragwort flowers, and keep the late-summer honey separate or leave it in the hive as winter stores. It is invasive in North America, Australia and New Zealand.