Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea)
Golden Ragwort is a beautiful plant when in flower and makes an effective ground cover even in dry shade conditions, in the right situation as it can spread vigorously by rhizomes, so choose your planting place wisely. Its early bloom time helps provide nectar and pollen to small bees such as little carpenter bees, cuckoo bees, and various Halictid bees (illinoiswildflower.info). It is also the host plant for 8 different specialist bees (Holm, 2017) (Johnson and Colla, 2023). The foliage is toxic to most mammalian herbivores. This species is also known as Senecio aureus.
Photo Credit: Joshua Mayer
Golden Ragwort is a beautiful plant when in flower and makes an effective ground cover even in dry shade conditions, in the right situation as it can spread vigorously by rhizomes, so choose your planting place wisely. Its early bloom time helps provide nectar and pollen to small bees such as little carpenter bees, cuckoo bees, and various Halictid bees (illinoiswildflower.info). It is also the host plant for 8 different specialist bees (Holm, 2017) (Johnson and Colla, 2023). The foliage is toxic to most mammalian herbivores. This species is also known as Senecio aureus.
Photo Credit: Joshua Mayer
Golden Ragwort is a beautiful plant when in flower and makes an effective ground cover even in dry shade conditions, in the right situation as it can spread vigorously by rhizomes, so choose your planting place wisely. Its early bloom time helps provide nectar and pollen to small bees such as little carpenter bees, cuckoo bees, and various Halictid bees (illinoiswildflower.info). It is also the host plant for 8 different specialist bees (Holm, 2017) (Johnson and Colla, 2023). The foliage is toxic to most mammalian herbivores. This species is also known as Senecio aureus.
Photo Credit: Joshua Mayer
Life Cycle: Perennial
Sun Exposure: Full, Partial, Shade
Soil Moisture: Wet, Medium-wet, Medium-dry
Height: 2 feet
Plant Spacing:
Bloom Time: May - June
Bloom Color: Yellow
Advantages: Deer Resistant
Host Plant: 3 species of butterflies and moths use this as a caterpillar host plant in our area (nwf.org)
Specialist Bee: Mining Bee Andrena gardineri, Melissodes confuses, M. microstictus, M. semilupinus, Megachile parallela, Osmia coloradensis, O. subaustralis, and Ashmeadiella bucconis (Holm, 2017) (Johnson and Colla, 2023)
Resource: Holm, Heather. Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide. Pollination Press LLC, 2017
Resource: Johnson, Lorraine, and Sheila Colla. A Northern Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators: Creating Habitat in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Upper Midwest. Island Press, 2023
