🚀 go-pugleaf

> actually Senecio jacobaea contains toxic alkaloids. Even the honey of
> this species is reported to cause illness and psychoactive effects to
> man. I�m a botanist (and teacher) but no veterinary physician, so I
> can�t say, if such a big animal like a cow or a horse really is affected


The received wisdom in the U.K. is that the plant too distasteful to eat
when growing. However, when drying off after spraying or mowing it becomes
more palatable and is highly toxic. So it is obviously important to
eradicate it from fields used for hay etc. I think it is now no longer
illegal to allow it to grow on your land(seems this law was quietly dropped
when it became obvious the main offenders were highway authorities & local
authorities) I am not 100% sure about that. Eradication efforts are patchy
and probably fruitless in the long term. Worst infestations seem top be on
land hopelessly overgrazed by horses. As for the honey, I haven't heard of
actual poisoning of consumers, I believe the honey smells & tastes bad, when
fresh from the hive but the flavour improves with storage, I generally find
the bees prefer to work on other plants if they have the choice. Fireweed
(Epilobium spp) flowers about the same time and bees much prefer it. Not
much science in this, somebody else can do that.

Rod