Leaves: From the
root, on long petioles, rounded or heart-shaped, scalloped-edged,
often purplish; stem leaves variable, lance-shaped or lyrate,
deeply cut, sessile.
Preferred Habitat - Swamps, wet ground, meadows.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - Gulf States northward to Missouri, Ontario, and
Newfoundland.
While the aster clan is the largest we have in North America,
this genus Senecio is really the most numerous branch of the
great composite tribe, numbering as it does nearly a thousand
species, represented in all quarters of the earth. It is said to
take its name from senex = an old man, in reference to the white
hairs on many species; or, more likely, to the silky pappus that
soon makes the fertile disks hoary headed. "I see the downy heads
of the senecio gone to seed, thistle like but small," wrote
Thoreau in his journal under date of July 2nd, when only the
pussy-toes everlasting could have plumed its seeds for flight
over the dry uplands in a similar fashion. Innumerable as the
yellow, daisy-like composites are, most of them appear in late
summer or autumn, and so the novice should have little difficulty
in naming these loosely clustered, bright, early blooming small
heads.
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