Stinking Willy

The Ragwort (1832)

Ragwort, thou humble flower with tattered leaves
I love to see thee come & litter gold,
What time the summer binds her russet sheaves;
Decking rude spots in beauties manifold,
That without thee were dreary to behold,
Sunburnt and bare-- the meadow bank, the baulk
That leads a wagon-way through mellow fields,
Rich with the tints that harvest's plenty yields,
Browns of all hues; and everywhere I walk
Thy waste of shining blossoms richly shields
The sun tanned sward in splendid hues that burn
So bright & glaring that the very light
Of the rich sunshine doth to paleness turn
& seems but very shadows in thy sight.

by John Clare (1793-1864) 

Like the poet John Clare, I love wild flowers. He called them "Beautiful mortals of the glowing earth" and today, in the summer sunshine on Walney Island, there were wild flowers in profusion, especially the ragwort. Its golden brightness was made more-so by the hundreds of cinnabar moth caterpillars guzzling its leaves. Ragwort is toxic, but not to these caterpillars, and the more they eat, the brighter their black and orange stripes become, warning potential predators, "Don't eat me! Stay away, I'm poisonous." 

The posh name for ragwort is Jacobaea vulgaris, but its other rather inelegant names include benweed, St James-wort, dog standard and stinking Willy.

Writing prompts:

• When you're in a really bad mood and want to be left alone, how do you warn people to stay away? Write about such times.
• What is the brightest, most striking clothing you have ever worn? Write about why you wore it and how it made you feel.
  
• Write about the wild flowers you love. 
• The squirming, stripy caterpillar turns into the pretty red and black fluttering moth. Has there been a time in your life when you have undergone a similar metamorphosis? Describe what happened in your writing.