Orange Hawkweed

Orange Hawkweed

Orange Hawkweed, Devil's Paintbrush Hieracium aurantiacum is a hairy plant that grows in fields and along roadsides. Its flowering stem branches at the top and bears several dandelion-like heads with ray-type florets, that are orange instead of yellow as they are in most hawkweeds. Estimates of the number of species in the hawkweed genus range from 17 to 20,000 which shows how difficult it is to decide exactly what a "species" is. Whole books have been written on this genus alone. MORE! [CH] {FB}