Speedy seeds

Groundsel

Latin name: Senecio vulgaris
Superpowers: Produces huge numbers of tiny seeds
Where from: Found worldwide

Groundsel is a weed that is common in gardens. It has yellow daisy-flowers and can grow all year round. Weeds are clever and can grow very fast and groundsel grows, flowers and makes seeds very quickly, sometimes covering its whole lifecycle in five or six weeks. It can also germinate all year round and produces lots of seeds – over 1000 per plant.

Because groundsel grows so fast it can smother young garden plants and vegetables so gardeners need to weed it out before it sets seed. Cinnabar moths are exciting, red and black, day flying moths; you can often see their black-and-yellow striped caterpillars eating the leaves of groundsel and its relative, ragwort.