Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Senecio vagus
Common name
Saw Groundsel
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Forest and moist gullies.
subsp. eglandulosus: North from Wollongong. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands.
subsp. vagus: Occasional records. Widespread.
Notes
Shrub or perennial herb to 1.5 m high. Leaves mostly somewhat fleshy, often glaucous. Stems and leaves mostly hairless to sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, mostly 4–18 cm long, 10–100 mm wide; lower leaves often dissected, with 1–3 narrow lobes per side; middle leaves with the margins usually coarsely and irregularly toothed or lobed; upper leaves toothed to entire. Flower heads with 6–15 yellow 'petals', each 10-20 mm long, and yellow centres about 4–8 mm in diameter with about 25–50 florets. Flower heads below the 'petals' bell-shaped to urn-shaped, surrounded by 12–16 appressed bracts. Flower heads in loose clusters of 3–20 heads. Flowering: spring–autumn.
subsp. eglandulosus: bracts appressed to the flower heads without glands, outer bracts at the bases of the flower heads with margins entire or weakly toothed.
subsp. vagus: bracts appressed to the flower heads glandular, outer bracts at the bases of the flower heads with margins prominently toothed.
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Senecio~vagus (accessed 7 February, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
