GOLDEN RAGWORT (Senecio aureus), a North American plant of the composite family (Compositae), called also squaw weed, life-weed and false valer ian, found in wet places from Newfoundland to Ontario and Wisconsin and southward to Flor ida and Texas. It is a slender perennial with strongly scented roots and a smooth stem, 1 to 2 ft. high, bearing large, rounded, heart-shaped, basal leaves on slender stalks and a few narrow, toothed or divided, somewhat clasping stem leaves. The con spicuous golden-yellow flower heads, about a in. across, are borne in a long-stalked, terminal, more or less flat-topped cluster.
The plant is a common late spring and early summer wild flower throughout most parts of its range (see SENECIO).