Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Asterales

Family: Asteraceae -- sunflower

Variety: The Palouse phase is commonly var. exaltatus, but var. ochroleucus is sometimes found. Several other varieties are found in other parts of North America east to Minnesota and south to New Mexico.

Common Name: western groundsel, lambstongue ragwort

Species Code: SEIN2, SEINE, SEINO

Origin: Native to dry to mesic grasslands, shrub thickets and open forests of western North America.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a short erect crown; roots fibrous; stems erect, solitary and branched above, 20-70 cm tall.

Mature height: 12-24 inches

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thicket, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: FACU

Leaves: basal leaves petiolate, 6-25 cm long, narrowly oblanceolate to elliptic to nearly rotund, hirsute to arachnose or villous when young, becoming glabrate with age, margins usually entire to irregularly dentate; cauline leaves similar, progressively reduced and sessile upward.

Flowers: several to numerous in a loose or congested cyme; involucre 5-10 mm tall, campanulate, bracts lanceolate, usually black tipped; rays flowers 6-15 mm long, yellow in var. exaltatus, white to cream-colored in var. ochroleucus, disc flowers yellow.

Flower color: yellow, white

Bloom: April, May

Bloom starts on: late April

Bloom ends on: late May

Fruit: achene, linear to oblong, 4.5-5 mm long, glabrous; pappus of white bristles.

Characteristics:
S. exaltatus and S. atriapiculatus in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Fibrous rooted.
Perennating organ is a very small button-like caudex.
400,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
2n=40, 80 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993, Baldwin et al 2004).
Diploids and tetraploids are known.
Disc flowers are perfect, ray flowers are pistillate.
Fruit is an achene.
Seeds are wind dispersed.
Plants are poisonous to livestock but usually avoided.
Very little seed is produced by autogamy (Schmitt 1983).
Pollinated by bumblebees and butterflies. Bumblebees tend to visit many flowers in close proximity while butterflies carry pollen over longer distances (Schmitt 1980). The bumblebee Bombus bifarius and butterflies of the genera Colias, Pieris, Erebia, Papilio, Danaus, Euphydryas, Coenonympha and Vanessa are the primary pollinators (Schmitt 1983).

Comments: The Palouse phase is mostly var. exaltatus, which ranges from British Columbia to California and east to Montana and Colorado. It has yellow ray flowers and generally somewhat narrower basal leaves (oblanceolate to elliptic or subrotund). S. integerrimus var. ochroleucus is sometimes found on the Palouse but is more restricted to mesic habitats and is often associated with open places in ponderosa pine forests. It has a more narrow range from BC to California and east to Idaho and Montana. The ray flowers are white to cream-colored and the leaves are generally wider (tending to be deltoid or subcordate).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Precipitation: 10-24 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Hazards: poisonous

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: cold moist plus cool incubation

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: 2nd season

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: yes

Seed shatter: high

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: May

Seed comments: Seed is wind dispersed. Flowers and ripens seed indeterminately.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Keywords: native perennial upland forb

Propagation:
2 protocols in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
University of Kentucky

Other Propagation Information:
No germination without cold moist stratification. 16 weeks of cold moist stratification at 2^oC resulted in 81% germination during stratification and 100% germination after 2 days when moved to 22/17^oC (McDonough 1969).
Seed in fall (Kingery et al 2003).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Senecio integerrimus certainly is not a very beautiful plant. Grows and flowers early in the season, then goes dormant by summer. May be short-lived. Seeds need extended stratification to germinate and cool growing conditions to survive. Grow in full sun. Common name is western groundsel (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 12/21/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Kingery, James, Angela Cotter, and Kendra Moseley. 2003. Idaho Roadside Revegetation Handbook. Prepared for: Idaho Transportation Department. Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, University of Idaho. Online at http://h237-41.state.id.us/highways/ops/maintenance/Manuals/fullVegetationManual.pdf

McDonough, Walter T. 1969. Effective Treatments for the Induction of Germination in Mountain Rangeland Species. Northwest Science 43:18-22.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.

Schmitt, Johanna. 1980. Pollinator Foraging Behavior and Gene Dispersal in Senecio (Compositae). Evolution 34:934-943.

Schmitt, Johanna. 1983. Flowering Plant Density and Pollinator Visitation in Senecio. Oecologia 60:97-102.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 21 December 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium