Ragwort

It is Day Four of the 30 Days Wild challenge and don't think I didn't do anything yesterday because I did!  I went into my own garden and had a look around - more about that another time.  Today it was fine and bright so I went for the same walk and took this picture:

This was on the very edge of the beach near the mallow and growing in clumps.  Looking it up back home I could see that it was a type of ragwort, but I was not sure which variety.  It most resembles Oxford Ragwort, which is not a native plant to the UK unlike several other ragworts but which is often seen growing on waste ground.  If you are concerned about ragwort being poisonous or a nuisance there is a whole website devoted to myth busting here which is useful.  Common Ragwort is a more useful plant which is important to the existence of many insects, some of them rare and vital to the cinnabar moth which is in decline.  Oxford Ragwort arrived in the UK in the early years of the 18th century where is was put in the Oxford Botanical Gardens as an ornamental plant.  It escaped and spread, spreading further with the advent of the railways until it was a common sight everywhere.  I used to live in Oxford and know the Botanical Gardens well.  It is the oldest botanical garden in the UK and has a website here so you can see how lovely it is.