Two years ago, we started a wildflower meadow at Orton Academy to join the national effort to restore Britain’s wildflower meadows! As reported in our last post, we’ve had great success in establishing a range of wildflower species but in our paddock lurks a dastardly daisy! Dr. Orton investigates…
Wildflower meadows are a vibrant part of our national heritage and a vital contributor to biodiversity in Britain. We’ve been experimenting with different approaches on our Bump Meadow, Beetle Bank, Big Field and Paddock and we were lucky enough to get yellow rattle started in the paddock last year.
This year, though, the paddock has been dominated by common ragwort (senecio jacobaea). Its bright yellow flowers stand tall in the meadow, defying common estimates of its height by more than double. Our ragwort is at least six feet tall, creating a jungle thick enough to conceal a tiger.
Roguish Ragwort
Ragwort is infamous in the countryside as a killer of horses. It is toxic to the liver, and there are genuine concerns about harm to horses and livestock caused by ragwort.
This fiendish flower of the daisy family flowers from July to October, long after many other wildflowers have finished blooming. Seeds are dispersed by the wind, growing especially when the ground has been uprooted.
There are also good reasons for respecting ragwort. It hosts an abundance of wildlife, providing nectar for caterpillars, hoverflies, robber flies, solitary bees, bumblebees and beetles. At night, the flowers attract over 40 species of moth.
These creatures in turn are food for predatory insects and birds, meaning that ragwort can be an important part of our rural ecosystem.
Caterpillars and Cuckoos
For some species, ragwort is their only source of food. From July to early September, you will see yellow-and-black striped caterpillars of the cinnabar moth (tyria jacobaeae) feeding on the ragwort.
Cinnabars emerge as moths in mid-May and are on the wing until early August. Predominantly nocturnal, the pretty, slate-black moths have two red spots and two red stripes on their forewings, named after the mineral ‘cinnabar’ once used as a red pigment by painters.
One study found that cinnabar moths have decreased by 83% over 35 years, meaning that they are vulnerable according to IUCN criteria. Ragwort is vital to these moths; females lay eggs on the underside of its leaves.
Eating ragwort makes the caterpillars bad-tasting and protects them from predators, although some birds do eat them, including our notorious summer visitor, the cuckoo. Cuckoos specialise in poisonous caterpillars that other birds reject, so cinnabar caterpillars are an important food source.
Cuckoo numbers have declined by 65% since the early 1980s, partly due to reduced numbers of caterpillars. Its call was once the traditional start of summer, but is now less often heard in Britain. Could keeping ragwort help the cuckoo?
Spider Nurseries
It’s only this summer that I’ve started to appreciate how remarkable spiders are – and the ragwort jungle has helped with that. One morning, I noticed an abundance of spider webs throughout the ragwort in the paddock, each with a cluster of baby spiders inside.
Commonly found on Britain’s grasslands, the nurseryweb spider (pisaura mirabilis) is easy to recognise by the mid-line down its cephalothorax (front section of the body) and distinctive posture (holding their front two pairs of legs close together and outstretched).
They hunt and ambush their prey, rather than trapping it in a web. Males often present their partners with a gift – perhaps a fly – in order to avoid being eaten after mating!
The female builds a silk sheet among the vegetation as a nursery for her babies. She spends a lot of time guarding her nursery until the spiderlings are ready to live independently. If disturbed, the little spiders ‘explode’ from the cluster before regrouping.
Many people don’t like spiders, but few realise how important they are to our ecosystems – and to human health. First of all, Spiders control insect populations, including agricultural pests. A healthy spider population can prevent outbreaks of pests that can damage crops, spread diseases, and disrupt ecosystems.
Spiders also play a role in maintaining biodiversity through their role in the food web, providing food for birds, lizards, frogs, and small mammals. Their role in nutrient cycling (eating and digesting food, incorporating it into their bodies and returning it to the earth when they die) helps maintain the fertility of soils and supports the growth of plants and other organisms. You’ll see nurseryweb spiders all over Britain’s countryside, not just in ragwort, but I’ve noticed a particular abundance of this kind of wildlife among our ragwort jungle.
The dilemma is whether removing ragwort could do more harm than good. Ladybirds, moths and butterflies love it, and I’ve noticed a lot of honey bees and solitary bees in the ragwort. These bees are incredibly important for pollination of our crops and the ragwort could be providing them with an important nectar source whilst travelling between feeding and breeding sites.
Ragwort Management
Whether or not to dispose of ragwort depends on the unique situation of your site. It is rarely a problem in gardens and the invertebrate conservation group Buglife recommends thinking hard before pulling ragwort from local fields and meadows.
One point to remember is that ragwort, horses and cattle have lived alongside each other for millennia. Poisoning is actually much rarer than people imagine, because it usually occurs when ragwort has been cut within a hay crop and fed to animals. While it is growing, animals recognise the danger from the way it smells and avoid eating it.
Having said this, if you’ve created a wildflower meadow and want to use your grass cuttings for hay, you will need to get rid of it. You need to take the grass off your land for a successful wildflower meadow anyway, so there might be good reasons to do this.
Likewise, if you are close to a horse owner or a farmer with concerns about livestock, collaborate with him or her about the appropriate measures to take. Legislation to be aware of includes the Weeds Act (1959) and the Ragwort Control Act (2003). These allow the government to order occupiers of land to take action to prevent it from spreading. Action is usually only required where ragwort poses a high risk to land used for grazing, or forage production.
This legislation calls for management, not complete eradication. Given the role that ragwort plays in our ecosystem, perhaps we should see ragwort not as a dilemma but rather as an opportunity for dialogue – with our neighbours, with farmers and with the natural world itself.
Find Out More
If you’re interested in cIf you’re interested in conservation and wildlife, we have a blog series on British wildlife and a series on the people and wildlife of South Asia, from the altitudes of the Himalayas to the dense mangrove forests of Bangladesh!
We also offer online private tuition in our interdisciplinary course, Culture and Conservation, in which you can explore the links between our natural and cultural heritage and study wildlife and cultures from across the world! This is a template of a possible study route and can be combined, adapted, or designed from scratch to suit your interests and goals.
Dr. Orton will work with you to design a course of private tutorials tailored to your needs, ability and schedule. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to find out more!
Do More
Even if you don’t have a big garden, there are plenty of things you can do to help biodiversity in your area. Why not put up a solitary bee nesting box or insect home, create a woodpile as a habitat for small creatures or leave small areas of your garden to go wild? For more inspiration, click the link to read about how we created a wildlife pond.
Think about your own area and how you can protect vulnerable but important parts of your own environment. You might even want to start your own project investigating the cultural importance of wildlife in your area. Dr. Orton works with independent scholars undertaking their own research for an independent project, people writing a book or simply those who have a personal interest. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to get started!
Reach Out
We’d love to see what you’re doing to help wildlife in your area. Follow the Conservation highlight reel on the Orton Academy Instagram to see what we’re getting up to and tag us in to any snaps you put up!
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