Common Groundsel
Scientific Name: Senecio vulgaris L.
Other Names: séneçon vulgaire, séneçon commun
Family: Composite or Aster Family (Compositae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing only by seed.
Habitat: Common groundsel occurs throughout Ontario, often very abundantly, in gardens, row crops, waste places and roadsides.
Seedlings
- Very short stem
- Leaves alternate
- Oblong to elongated cotyledons
Stems
- Erect or somewhat reclining
- Often branched
- 10- 60 cm (4- 24 in.) high
- Smooth
- Somewhat fleshy
Leaves
- Alternate (1 per node)
- Slightly fleshy
- Variable in shape from smooth and almost without teeth to shallowly or deeply lobed, with the lobes finely to coarsely and irregularly toothed
- Lower leaves stalked
- Upper ones stalk-less and often clasping the stem
Flowers
- Heads stalked in clusters at the end of stems and branches
- Each head 5- 10 mm (1/5- 2/5 in.) across
- Cylindrical or conic
- Without ray florets
- Disk florets yellowish
- Involucral bracts (surrounding each flower head) small, overlapping, usually with distinct black tips
- Seeds small, short-hairy, with a prominent, white, hairy pappus
- Flowers from June to late autumn
Often Confused With
Common Ragweed Seedling (The lobes of the leaves of common ragweed are much more deeply dissected.)