Deceptively similar: St. John's wort
Medicinal and poisonous plants can easily be confused by laypeople, as both plants have bright yellow flowers. Often they also thrive in peaceful harmony in the same locations and have the same flowering period. Mixing up could be fatal, so look twice when collecting St. John's wort.
also read
- How should ragwort be disposed of?
- How can you overwinter St. John's wort?
- Jacob's ragwort - highly toxic even when dried
The ragwort is a daisy with different numbers of petals. The flowers themselves resemble daisy flowers and look like little suns. It grows to anywhere from a foot to a meter.
St. John's wort, on the other hand, forms umbels and always has exactly five broad petals. It grows tight upright and is still between thirty and eighty centimeters. When the buds are rubbed, the deep red hypericin comes out (blood of Saint John). Since this is never the case with ragwort, you can identify the plant unequivocally.
If the plants do not bloom, you can tell them apart by looking at the leaves. St. John's wort has small leaves about three centimeters long. Those of the dangerous ragwort are significantly larger and often covered with an unsightly fluff.
Differentiate between Wiesenpippau and Jakobsgreiskraut
The Wisenpippau is also a daisy family, but in contrast to the golden yellow “margarite flower” of the ragwort, it has a yellow flower similar to the dandelion. The stem leaves of the Pippau are far less cut out than those of the Jacob's ragwort. The poisonous plant often has a purple-tinted stem. In the case of the non-toxic Pippau, this is always deep green.
Confused with rocket
At first glance, the leaves of the rocket, which is extremely popular as a salad, and those of the ragwort look very similar and can therefore be confused by laypeople. In 2009, some ragwort leaves were found in a packet of rocket, bought in a supermarket. However, this incident was unique.
First of all, arugula can be unequivocally identified by its strong and unique smell. In contrast to the leaves of the ragwort, rocket leaves are hairless and relatively soft. Those of the herb, on the other hand, are hairy like a cobweb and resemble tough thistles in their structure. In addition, rocket does not grow wild in our latitudes, so that if you find it, you can assume that it is scallop.
Tips
In Germany, more than 25 different types of ragwort are known, all of which are poisonous to different degrees. If you often collect herbs yourself, you should also find out exactly what these poisonous plants look like.
