Silver ragwort | |
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Mature plant at Għajn Tuffieħa, Malta | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Asterales |
Family: | Asteraceae |
Genus: | Jacobaea |
Species: | J. maritima |
Binomial name | |
Jacobaea maritima | |
Synonyms [1] [2] [3] | |
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Jacobaea maritima, commonly known as silver ragwort, is a perennial plant species in the genus Jacobaea in the family Asteraceae, native to the Mediterranean region. It was formerly placed in the genus Senecio , and is still widely referred to as Senecio cineraria; see the list of synonyms (right) for other names.
It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant for its white, felt-like tomentose leaves; in horticultural use, it is also sometimes called dusty miller, a name shared with several other plants that also have silvery tomentose leaves, including Centaurea cineraria and Silene coronaria .
Silver Ragwort is a very white-wooly, heat and drought tolerant evergreen subshrub growing to 0.5–1 m (1.6–3.3 ft) tall. The stems are stiff and woody at the base, densely branched, and covered in long, matted grey-white to white hairs. The leaves are pinnate or pinnatifid, 5–15 centimetres (2.0–5.9 in) long and 3–7 centimetres (1.2–2.8 in) broad, stiff, with oblong and obtuse segments, and like the stems, covered with long, thinly to thickly matted with grey-white to white hairs; the lower leaves are petiolate and more deeply lobed, the upper leaves sessile and less lobed.
The tomentum is thickest on the underside of the leaves, and can become worn off on the upper side, leaving the top surface glabrous with age. The flowers are yellow, daisy-like in dense capitula 12–15 millimetres (0.47–0.59 in) in diameter, with central disc florets surrounded by a ring of 10–13 ray florets, and enclosed in a common whorl of bracts at the base of the capitulum. The seeds are cylindrical achenes. [4] [5] [6]
Jacobaea maritima is native to the western and central Mediterranean region, in northwest Africa (Morocco, northern Algeria, Tunisia), southern Europe (Spain, Gibraltar, southern France including Corsica, Italy including Sardinia and Sicily, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece), and the far west of Asia (Turkey). It occurs primarily on cliffs and rocky coastal sites, more rarely inland. [2] [3] [5]
It is also naturalised further north in Europe (north to Great Britain and Ireland, where occurring mainly in mild coastal areas [4] [5] ) and locally in North America. [7]
As with many other densely tomentose plants, the tomentum, or hair-like pieces on the stems and leaves, is used by some species of bees (e.g. Anthidium manicatum and Anthidium oblongatum in Megachilidae) for nest-building. [8]
Hybrids are known with Jacobaea erucifolia and Jacobaea vulgaris. TheJ. vulgaris variant is fertile producing a wide range of intermediate progeny. [4] [5]
Jacobaea maritima is widely used in horticulture for its silvery foliage. It is winter-hardy in USDA Zones 8-10, tolerating winter temperatures down to -12° to -15 °C, [6] [9] tolerant of light shade but preferring full sun. [6] In colder areas it is grown as an annual plant. Many cultivars have been selected for particularly dense silvery tomentum, such as 'Cirrus', 'New Look', 'Ramparts', 'Silverdust', 'Silver Filigree', and 'White Diamond'. [6] It has been recommended in North America for its fire resistance [10] resistance to browsing by deer, [11] [12] and its salt tolerance. [13]
The cultivar 'Silver Dust' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [14]
Confusion in the horticultural trade exists between J. maritima and Centaurea cineraria , which has resulted in confusion regarding which cultivars pertain to either species, which has also resulted in much confusion in photographs of these species on the internet. [15]
Senecio is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels.
Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea, is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere.
Senecio vulgaris, often known by the common names groundsel and old-man-in-the-spring, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is an annual herb, native to the Palaearctic and widely naturalised as a ruderal species in suitable disturbed habitats worldwide.
Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer) is an herbaceous flowering plant and a member of the family Caryophyllaceae. It is generally distinguished from other species of its genus by "tomentose" or felty foliage. It is a low, spreading perennial native to alpine regions of Europe. The stems & leaves are silvery-grey, whilst the flowers are star-like, white & about 15mm across.
Silene coronaria, the rose campion, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to Asia and Europe. Other common names include dusty miller, mullein-pink and bloody William. In the United Kingdom it is still widely referenced under its synonym Lychnis coronaria.
Centaurea cineraria, the velvet centaurea, is also known as dusty miller and silver dust. Centaurea cineraria is in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to Italy. In natural settings, it grows on coastal cliffs, ranging from 0–350 m above sea level. Mature plants may reach 80 centimetres (31.5 in) in height. Centaurea cineraria produces purple flowers.
Senecio pulcher is an ornamental plant native to the wet valleys & slopes and flooded rocky habitats in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Cited in Flora Brasiliensis by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius. After dusty miller, S. pulcher is perhaps one of the most popular species of the genus for horticulture along with German ivy and purple ragwort or it was in 1917.
Leucophyta is a plant genus which is endemic to Australia. The genus was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in 1818.
Senecio squalidus, known as Oxford ragwort, is a flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is a yellow-flowered herbaceous plant, native to mountainous, rocky or volcanic areas, that has managed to find other homes on man-made and natural piles of rocks, war-ruined neighborhoods and even on stone walls. These habitats resemble its well drained natural rocky homeland. The plants have spread via the wind, rail and the activities of botanists. The travels of this short-lived perennial, biennial, or winter annual make it a good subject for studies of the evolution and ecology of flowering plants.
Senecio eboracensis, the York groundsel or York radiate groundsel, is a flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is a hybrid between a native and a non-native introduced species, which naturalised in England but the population failed to sustain itself. It was brought back by captive cultivation. It is a self-pollinating hybrid species of ragwort and one of only six new plant species to be discovered in either the United Kingdom or North America in the last 100 years.
Centaurea gymnocarpa, also known as fiordaliso di Capraia (Italian) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a rare species endemic to Italy found only on Capraia, a small island located in the Tuscan Archipelago, with the species being distributed across 8 subpopulations on the island's surface. Its natural habitats are Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation and rocky areas, colonizing in the cracks and fissures of cliffs.
Tilia tomentosa, known as silver linden in the US and silver lime in the UK, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from Romania and the Balkans east to western Turkey, occurring at moderate altitudes.
Tephroseris palustris, also known by its common names swamp ragwort, northern swamp groundsel, marsh fleabane, marsh fleawort, clustered marsh ragwort and mastodon flower, a herbaceous species of the family Asteraceae. It can be seen most easily when its bright yellow umbel flowers appear from May to early July standing 3 to 4 feet along marshes, stream banks and slough areas where it likes to grow.
Jacobaea erucifolia, the hoary ragwort, is a species of the genus Jacobaea and the family Asteraceae.
Jacobaea paludosa, syn. Senecio paludosus, the fen ragwort, is a species of the genus Jacobaea and the family Asteraceae that can be found in Northern Italy, and everywhere in Europe.
Senecio elegans is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names redpurple ragwort, purple groundsel, wild cineraria and purple ragwort.
Euphorbia characias, the Mediterranean spurge or Albanian spurge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae typical of the Mediterranean vegetation. It is an upright, compact evergreen shrub growing to 1.2 m tall and wide.
Anthidium manicatum, commonly called the European wool carder bee, is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae, the leaf-cutter bees or mason bees.
Alniaria folgneri, Folgner's whitebeam, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to central China. A small tree, the abaxial side of its soft leaves are covered in a silvery-white tomentose layer. Its autumn foliage often turns golden pink, set off by the white undersides, but the intensity of the color varies from year to year. Its cultivar 'Emiel' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Media related to Jacobaea maritima at Wikimedia Commons