Senecio eboracensis

Senecio eboracensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Senecio
Species:
S. eboracensis
Binomial name
Senecio eboracensis
Abbott & Lowe[1]
Range of Senecio eboracensis in Great Britain.

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.[2] It is a self-pollinating hybrid species of ragwort[3] and one of only six new plant species to be discovered in either the United Kingdom or North America in the last 100 years.[4]

The plant was first discovered in York, England in 1979 and last seen in the wild in 1991. A survey by UK government advisory body Natural England found it was driven to extinction by 2000, partly due to the use of weedkiller.[5] Seeds of the plant were stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, successfully germinated, and reintroduced to York in 2023.[6]

  1. ^ Botanic Garden & Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. "Details for: Senecio eboracensis". Euro+Med PlantBase. Freie Universität Berlin. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  2. ^ Barkham, Patrick (2023-05-27). "York groundsel blooms again in Britain's first-ever de-extinction event". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  3. ^ Abbot, R.J.; Lowe, A.J. (2003). "A new British species, Senecio eboracensis (Asteraceae), another hybrid derivative of S. vulgaris L. and S. squalidae L." (PDF). Watsonia. 24: 375–388. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  4. ^ Martin Wainwright (2003-02-20). "Blooming unexpected". Education Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  5. ^ "Weedkiller blamed for loss of York Groundsel". York Press. 2010-03-12. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  6. ^ Barkham, Patrick (2023-05-27). "York groundsel blooms again in Britain's first-ever de-extinction event". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-05-27.