Ragwort/Tansy

Jesus sometimes gave the meaning of the parable He spoke, and here is an example: “and these are the seeds that fall among the thorns, they hear the word and the worries about life,  the deception of riches, and lusts of other things come in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” Mark 4:18,19 (Sandy’s understanding.)

Last week Wednesday I volunteered to contribute to

Cathy@tabitha66 Words and Herbs

Weeds and wildflowers on Wednesday.

I am sure others will choose Ragwort as well, so I have thought about it and looked at Ragwort in these four ways with a few facts from Wikipedia.

The sighting of Ragwort growing in a field near Henley.

A stalk from our garden, which I have observed.

A video of roadside Ragwort noticed as we travelled in Europe.

Lastly, a poem by John Clare read by Thomas Whichello, called

The Ragwort.

The plant grows as a native to the UK. It is often unwanted because of its toxic effect on cattle and horses, but it is valued for its nectar production. Bees, flies, moths, and butterflies feed on it.

Over a season, one plant may produce 2,000 to 2,500 yellow flowers in 20 to 60 headed ,flat topped flower heads. The seeds are spread by wind as dandelion-like groups of stronger hair that prick and help the seed disperse.

The plant is well established on both sides of this road. The number of seeds may be as large as 75,000 to 120,000 although in its native range in Eurasia very few of these would grow into new plants and research shows that most seeds do not travel a great distance from the parent plant.

Here are the first few lines of the  poem by John Clare 1831

Ragwort thou humble flower with tattered leaves
I love to see thee come and litter gold....

Press on Thomas Whichello, John Clare, The Rahwort 10March 2022 if you would like to hear it read.

I hope I can get this to Cathy I can only try.

Take care.

Sandy 🙂