Turning Weeds Into Wildflowers

Growing up with horses my understanding of ragwort was simple: its frilly leaves and yellow flowers represented a weed that was toxic and undesirable, it could be deadly if your horse or pony ate it by mistake.

An outright anti-ragwort stance was therefore not that unreasonable. Particularly because when cut and dried into hay for fodder, ragwort can pose a very real threat to the health of grazing animals, especially equines.

I therefore always considered ragwort as something to be looked out for, just so that it could be got rid of.

And I can’t say that I ever considered ragwort beyond its potential to cause harm to horses, ponies and donkeys.

Now, for the first blog post - I will share with you how I have changed my mind quite radically on ragwort. I have discovered a different and more positive side to this wildflower which I had - up to now - always only considered a weed.

One of the main objectives at Rewilding.ie is to serve as a platform for rethinking our relationship with nature, so this little lesson feels like a nice place to start….

Ragwort in flower and beginning to go to seed in Co. Donegal.

I don’t think I had even given a thought to ragwort in the past decade or so.

But since I have embarked upon my pro-pollinator journey, ragwort has come to my attention again and the anti-ragwort stance which I was raised with has taken an about turn.

Rather than regarding ragwort with hostility, as an enemy to equines - I have gained a more nuanced appreciation that it also serves as a pillar of healthy habitat for pollinators.

I have not lost sight of its potential for harm - the risks associated with this plant are real and require management.

But I have gained a new understanding of the value of this plant and the role that it plays in our ecosystem.

Like many people across Ireland who wish to build a healthier habitat for pollinators, this year we left a large patch of lawn un-mowed to allow plants and pollinators to flourish.

Ragwort appeared in this mini-meadow - and it immediately stuck out to me that, at first sight, I retained some residual prejudice against this particular plant.

Over the course of the summer, my feeling towards the ragwort had changed completely. I still recognise ragwort as the “injurious weed” that it can be. But I have enjoyed watching it bloom and have appreciated seeing it play host to so much wildlife.

It is not only the pollinators have flourished in tandem with the ragwort plants.

Now as we have reached the end of summer, the flower has gone to seed - and to my surprise - I have seen goldfinches feasting on the ragwort seeds. Having grown up in an area where ragwort was ruthlessly suppressed, I had never observed this behaviour.

And seeing the goldfinches relish the ragwort seeds, I began to appreciate the ragwort all the more.

The ragwort this year has provided a welcome reminder that it can be all too easy to overlook the positive value of a thing, just because it may also possess a capacity to cause harm.

As for the tricky question of whether a certain plant should be classed simply as a “weed” or a “wildflower”.

Such a tricky question has a tricky answer… “it depends”!

And so the conscious consideration and re-consideration of the “weed” vs “wildflower” question certainly provide us with a useful exercise in the power of perspective! 🐴

—

As a little aside, I have heard that honey from areas with very high levels of ragwort can be extremely bitter.

Intrigued to find out more about this…