Groundsel
Groundsel - Senecio vulgaris
Low to short plant, the stem is often purplish. The leaves are bright shiny green pinnately lobed. The upper unstalked and slightly clasping. Flowerheads yellow, small and rayless 4 to 5 mm in lax branched clusters. Flower bracts often black tipped, the outer very short. Pappus white.
A common weed of gardens, disturbed soil abd waste places.
Flowers throughout the year.
Annual.
Common throughout Britain.
Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 603 of the 617 tetrads.
 Church Walk Sapcote SP 4855 9321 (taken 5.1.2008).JPG)
Graham Calow
Sapcote
05 January 2008
Mike Higgott
Anstey garden
25 April 2015
Kaye Axon
Westcotes, Hinckley Road
21 March 2023
David Nicholls
Ashby Canal, Shackerstone
15 September 2012
David Nicholls
Ratby village pond and meadow
09 May 2023
 Church Walk Sapcote SP 4855 9321 (taken 5.1.2008).JPG)
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 field near to Spring Gardens Sapcote SP 4918 9386 (taken 21.4.2008).JPG)
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Puccinia lagenophorae
Puccinia lagenophorae is a gall-causing rust affecting stems and leaves of Common Groundsel, and occasionally Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus) and Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris). It causes swelling and distortion of stems and leaves, with bright orange aecia. There are no uredinia or spermogonia, and the blackish-brown telia are rarely seen.