Golden Ragwort
Packera aurea
Click or tap the section titles below to learn more about this species!
CLASSIFICATION: What’s in a name?
Scientific Name: Packera aurea. The epithet aurea is derived from the Latin aurum meaning gold.
Common Name: Golden Ragwort. Also known by many other names, including golden groundsel, butterweed, cocashweed, coughweed, ebbens root, golden senecio, groundsel, grundy swallow, unkum, waxweed, and wild valerian.4
Family: Asteraceae (Aster family). This is one of the largest plant families, with over 32,000 members! Members of this family are also known as composites, referring to their flower heads which comprise two types of flowers, ray and disk florets. Disk florets are small flowers which are grouped tightly together in the center of the head, while ray florets resemble petals and are arranged around the margins. Some members of this family have both types of flower, while others have just one (for example, dandelions have flower heads that consist entirely of ray flowers!). The yellow center of a daisy is a dense cluster of disk florets, and the white “petals” are ray florets. Can you think of any other plants with composite flowers?
IDENTIFICATION: What does it look like?
Average Height: 1-4 feet
Description: A perennial plant that grows in colonies, spreading through horizontal shoots that can grow roots. The leaves are bright green above and often purple below, with toothed margins. The leaves at the base of the plant are rounded and heart-shaped, while the stem leaves are longer and finely dissected and featherlike. The plant flowers in early spring and has large, flat-topped clusters of flowers borne atop the upright stems. Each “flower” is composite, consisting of many disk (the small flowers which form the center of the “flower”) and ray (the petal-like structures on the margins) florets.
Bloom time: Mar-May
Notes: It can be distinguished from the similar roundleaf ragwort (P. obovata) by the heart-shaped leaves at the base of the plant. Roundleaf ragwort is much less common, and is found in dry forests and woodlands over mafic and calcareous soils.
LOCATION: Where is it at home?
Range: Common throughout Virginia, and documented in most counties. Very widespread across the eastern and midwestern US and eastern Canada, though absent from much of the deep south.1,2
Geology/Soil: Typically found in soils composed of weathered mafic and calcareous rocks and nutrient-rich alluvium, but can also be found in moist to wet nutrient-poor soils.
Habitat: Most strongly associated with rich, moist forests, seepage swamps, fens, wet meadows and grasslands, and well-drained floodplain forests. Occasionally in drier uplands.1
CONNECTIONS: What are its relationships to other plants, animals, and humans?
Flora associations: Often found with a wide array of other spring-blooming wildflowers such as mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica), spring beauty (Claytonia virginica var. virginica), and cut-leaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), in rich slope and floodplain forests. In seepage swamps, often found with skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), false hellebore (Veratrum viride), golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium americanum), sedges (Carex spp.), and winterberry (Ilex verticillata).
Fauna associations: This species is a valuable nectar source for many early-flying butterflies, including the Juvenal’s duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis), juniper hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus), and brown elfin (Callophrys augustinus). It is also visited by many of our native bees and is the larval host for the gem moth (Orthonama obstipata).3
Human associations: Over time, people have found a variety of medicinal and other uses for this plant. The Cherokee use tea made from it for heart trouble and to prevent pregnancy, the Haudenosaunee use it for fevers, broken bones, and to induce sweating, and it was for a time listed in the National Formulary.6,7
We want these plants to thrive and for everyone who gets to visit the park to enjoy them, so remember – don’t pick flowers or other parts of the plant!!
Bibliography & Definitions
1 Weakley, A.S., J.C. Ludwig, and J.F. Townsend. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Bland Crowder, ed. Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project, Inc., Richmond. Fort Worth: Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press.
2 “2013 BONAP North American Plant Atlas. TaxonMaps.” Bonap.net, bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Packera. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
3“Golden Ragwort (Packera Aurea).” Www.illinoiswildflowers.info, www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/gold_ragwort.htm. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
4 Gordon, Mitchell. GOLDEN RAGWORT.
5 “Packera Aurea – Plant Finder.” Www.missouribotanicalgarden.org, www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=l350#:~:text=Genus%20name%20honors%2020th%20century. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
6 Hamel, Paul B, and Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses. 1975.
7 “BRIT – Native American Ethnobotany Database.” Naeb.brit.org, naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=packera+aurea. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.
Definitions:
Host plant: A plant which serves as the food source for a particular species, typically used in reference to butterflies and moths.
Composite: A member of the Asteraceae.