Fen Ragwort (Senecio paludosus)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Critically Endangered (Not Relevant) [CR(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Jacobaea paludosa |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (L.) G.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | CR in England (and GB) - present at only 1 extant native locality. Introduced to several sites in the past 30 years, but persisting at just 1. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Present at one site in GB, in a ditch by a busy road. Most introductions have failed. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 6. Recovery solutions trialled |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Extinction debt |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | The entire GB native population consists of one, possibly two plants. Most introductions were thought to have failed either due to herbivory (slugs, rabbits, deer), inappropriate introduction locations, lack of management, and/or also perhaps genetic issues (all ex situ plants that have been introduced were grown from the sole extant native population) |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Manage appropriately the sole extant native site by means of annually managing vegetation in the ditch at Stuntney, according to the developed methodology agreed by the landowner's ecologist and NE RO & VP specialist, being careful not to damage the extant plants of Fen Ragwort that are present.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Delph Bridge Drain SSSI (Stuntney, Cambs), Fenland
Comments: Works should be devised and overseen by a person with knowledge of the species
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Monitor the success or otherwise of Action 1
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Delph Bridge Drain SSSI (Stuntney, Cambs)
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Establish a reintroduction programme at suitable sites, learning lessons from previous failures and the species habitats at thriving populations in mainland Europe
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: (Re-)introduction
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: reintroduction methodology should be designed to learn lessons about past failures, and have a nested design at each site (e.g. 3 year-old plants; 2 year-old plants, 1-year old plants, seed, protection by fencing, protection from slug damage, no protection, etc). Methods used should reference thriving populations in mainland Europe.
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.