The Ragwort

• 
• 
• 
• 

 

To The Cushag’s Friend

by Josephine Kermode, 1907

 

O THE cushag flower in a fairy bower
Would shine like a star of gold;
But when it grows in the farmer’s close
‘Tis a shocking weed, we’re told.
Yet common things
May have their wings
To help our souls above;
And wayside weeds,
Like kindly deeds,
Spring from a father’s love.

 

The cushag flower had fairy power
In olden times, you know,
To bear you away on a summer’s day
Wherever you wished to go.
Its golden wings
Were slender things
To carry souls aloft;
But fairy tales,
Like fresh’ning gales,
May have their uses oft.

 

The cushag flower in a stormy hour
Shines brighter for the gloom;
So kindly deeds, like wayside weeds,
May shine when troubles loom.
Old folks would say,
In their own day,
When troubles took their fill,
And times were bad,
And hearts were sad,
“There’s gool on the cushag still!”

 

Now the cushag we know must never grow
Where the farmer’s work is done;
But along the rills in the heart of the hills
The cushag may shine like the sun,
Where the golden flowers
Have fairy powers
To gladden our hearts with their grace;
And in Vannin Veg Veen,
In the valleys green,
The cushags have still a place.

 

 

* Images from A Plant/Human Encounter, LUX Event, London, 2021

https://lux.org.uk/event/a-plant-human-encounter

 

Ever heard of the Yeti or the Jabberwocky?

What about the Ragwort?

Who are they?

What are they?

 

There is a plant named the “Oxford ragwort”.

What do you think of when you hear this plant’s name?”

 

Image from the website: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2381806/Ragwort-Plant-kills-horses-infested-countryside-animal-groups-warn.html

Oxford ragwort, you are everywhere or elsewhere.

Even…

 

Research Clip from The Ragwort, 42 sec, Ellie Kyungran Heo on Vimeo.

 

 

If I were you, I wouldn’t come down either.

 

You took root next to a chimney or on walls of stone, all around the United Kingdom.

Was this a nostalgic act?

 

 

You brought me to Mount Etna in Sicily, an active volcano, where you are from, where you have taken root, and then…

.. you made me think where I should.

 

Homing instinct?!

 

PS: people call you Senecio squalidus in Sicily and ‘Oxford ragwort’ or a ‘weed’ in the UK. What would you like to be called?

Senecio squalidus is a yellow-flowering plant native to Mount Etna, Sicily. The plant was introduced to Britain in the early 18th century in Oxford; its means of arrival are unknown. But there are some records on those who were involved in the plants’ migration: one Italian monk, a British diplomat, and the Duchess of Beaufort who were passionate about collecting plants from wherever they could. There was also the head of the Oxford Botanic Garden who worked with the Duchess. Following many years of cultivation in the Garden, the Sicilian plant escaped into the wild and began to grow on the stonework of Oxford’s colleges. The seeds of the plants spread even further, reaching as far as Oxford Railway Station, and from there, to various sites across the UK. This Oxonian origin gave the plant its common name, “Oxford ragwort”, classified as a weed in its new home. Professor Simon Hiscock, Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden, says, “Oxford ragwort is an extremely successful colonizer”.

 

Reference: Hiscock SJ., Genetic control of self-incompatibility in Senecio squalidus L., Heredity (Edinb). 2000 Jul;85 (Pt 1):10-9.

In the Autumn Science Lectures at the Oxford Botanic Garden, Dawn Sanders asks, “Vad se du? / What do you see?”

Dawn’s research questions:

– How might plant-based sensoric experiences influence human perceptions of plants?

– How might story-based scientific narratives concerning individual plants impact on ‘plant-blindness’ in didactical situations?

– By ‘looking through an artistic lens’ is it possible to appreciate/identify plants in new ways?