Wild Flowers Of Strathclyde Park
  
 

Common Groundsel
Senecio vulgaris
of the Daisy family
an annual
10-45 cm high
blooms January - December
likes cultivated and waste land, roadsides and verges
can be seen throughout the Park

    
The name of this plant derives from the Anglo-Saxon grondeswyle which means "ground glutton". Its scientific name, Senicio, comes from the Latin for "old man" - a reference to the resemblance of its seeding flowerhead to an old man's grey hair. These seeds are carried far from the plant by the wind giving gardeners good reason to feel that Groundsel is a nuisance as they germinate in all the unwanted places. However in the past the plant was used in poultices to cure skin sores.
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