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Senecio ruwenzoriensis is a perennial herb from Africa with bright yellow daisy-like flowers, found in grasslands and rocky outcrops. Its key care point is that it is a toxic plant containing liver-damaging alkaloids, so it is grown with caution rather than for everyday houseplant use.
Senecio ruwenzoriensis is an African species of plant. While it is widely distributed, it seems to be highly localised in this range.
It was suspected that this species was poisoning that cattle that were eating it in the Nanyuki district of Kenya. Two potential alkaloids (ruwenine and ruzorine) were extracted and compared to retrosine (another Senecio alkaloid) in rats. While both of the alkaloids found in Senecio ruwenzoriensis were found to cause liver damage, ruwenine was the more potent of the two. It was more harmful to the rats than retrosine, while ruzorine was less harmful than retrosine.
This species has a large distribution but seems to be highly localised within its range. It ranges from Swellendam in South Africa to tropical Africa. It is found in South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan. It is found growing in grasslands and shrublands, especially around rocky outcrops. It is also found growing on grassy slopes. The plants growing in South Africa were originally considered to be a different species from those growing in Kenya (with those growing in South Africa being referred to as Senecio othonniformis. They were, however, found to contain the same alkaloids The South African populations were then included in Senecio ruwenzoriensis.
Cutleaf burnweed · Yellow Starvation Ragwort · Senecio adenotrichius · Texas ragwort · Creeping groundsel · Senecio antandroi · Senecio antisanae · Senecio antofagastanus · Chaparral ragwort · Senecio apolobambensis · Senecio aquilaris · Senecio argutus
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Senecio ruwenzoriensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
