White Western Groundsel
Senecio integerrimus
Var. ochroleucus

Note: there are nine different Groundsels found in the Columbia River Gorge

Click here to see a list of the nine Groundsells

The White Western Groundsel (Senecio Integerrimus) is native to the Northwest.

Click here to see info on White Western Groundsel

The genus name, Senecio, is from the Latin “senex” meaning “old man”. This might refer to the white hair on the leaves and stem or perhaps the fluffy white pappus (hairs) on the seed.

The groundsel species contain poisonous alkaloids but are sufficiently unpalatable that livestock seldom eat them.

Senecio integerrimus has a single, stout, erect stem and thick basal leaves on petioles.

Leaves are mostly basal and they are are up to ten inches long and two inches wide. Proceeding up the stem the leaves are stalkless and get smaller.

The flower head is composed of both disc and ray flowers (pedals), as are the flowers of other members of the aster (or sunflower) family.

The flowers have eight rays (pedals) and they vary in color from yellow to almost white.
The disks are yellow.

Each head produces about twenty smooth seeds with long white bristles. Fruit is a small, round fuzzy plume of small brown seeds, each with a tuft of white hairs (pappus) to carry it off in the wind.

The two most common varieties of Groundsel are:
1) Var. ochroleucus has white ray flowers, cream disk, may have slightly blackened bract tips on cups.
2) Var. exaltatus has no ray flowers, creamy disk, grows in forests. There are there are nine different Groundsels found in the Columbia River Gorge. See reference given above

Grondsel is said to have many medical uses. For example, Groundsel is an old-fashioned remedy for chapped hands. If boiling water is poured on the fresh plant, the liquid forms a pleasant swab for the skin and will remove roughness.