There are probably over a thousand different kinds of Senecio, very
widely distributed. The name is from the Latin for "old man," in
allusion to the long white hairs of the pappus, when "gone to seed."
Our kinds have many common names, such as Groundsel, Ragwort, and
Squaw-weed.
[Sidenote: =Ragwort=
_Senècio perpléxus var. díspar_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
Utah, Idaho=]
A conspicuous plant and quite handsome, though its flowers are rather
untidy-looking, for, like many other Senecios, the rays do not come out
evenly. It is about two feet high, with a stout, hollow, ridged stem,
sparsely woolly, and dark green, thickish leaves, with shallow and
uneven teeth and covered with sparse, fine, white woolly hairs, as if
partially rubbed off. The flowers are over an inch across, with bright
yellow rays, curling back in fading, an orange center, fading to brown,
and the bracts of the involucre tipped with black. This grows in moist
rich soil, in mountain valleys.
[Sidenote: =Creek Senecio=
_Senècio Douglásii_
=Yellow
Spring, summer, autumn
Southwest=]
A handsome bush, about three feet high, covered with many flowers, on
slender flower-stalks, sticking up out of a mass of rather delicate
foliage, which is often covered with white cottony wool. The flowers
are an inch and three-quarters across, with bright light yellow, rather
untidy rays and yellow centers. This grows in dry stream beds and on
warm slopes in the foothills.
[Illustration: Creek Senecio--S. Douglasii.