Orange Hawkweed

An image of orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) blossoms amidst green foliage.

Captured along a roadside near Thunder Bay, Ontario, canada.

The orange hawkweed is also known as Pilosella aurantiaca, Fox-and-cubs, Tawny Hawkweed, Devil's Paintbrush, Red Devil, and Grim-the-collier. In Ontario, it is classified as an invasive , noxious plant species.

Native to Eurasia, Orange hawkweed was likely introduced as an ornamental plant because of its showy, fiery orange flowers. It is a perennial forb that reproduces by seed or stolons (short, strawberry-like runners). Seedlings forms a rosette and flowering bolts re-sprout from a small rhizome yearly thereafter. Runners are produced during flowering and extend 10 to 25 cm; these runners form new rosettes. It has a fibrous root system with a woody stem base.

The ancient Greeks believed hawk'’ feeding on the sap of hawkweed is what gave them their keen eyesight.

There are many native hawkweeds in North America but none produce stolons and their flowers are yellow or white.