Hieracium aurantiacum L.

Devil's Paintbrush, Orange Hawkweed

© SRTurner

Family - Asteraceae/Cichorieae

Habit - Perennial forb with stolons or shallow rhizomes. Sap milky.

	Colonial habit.
© SRTurner

Stem - Ascending to erect, to 35 cm, moderately pubescent with stiff hairs, these often dark in color and gland-tipped.

	Stem.
© SRTurner

Leaves - Basal and usually a few cauline, alternate, simple. Basal leaves spatulate to oblanceolate, to 7 cm long, entire, pubescent. Stem leaves few to none, elliptic to oblanceolate, sessile, pubescent.

	Base of plant.
© SRTurner

	Stem leaf, adaxial.
© SRTurner

	Stem leaf, abaxial.
© SRTurner

Inflorescence - Terminal clusters of 2-7 heads. Peduncles stipitate-glandular.

	Inflorescence.
© SRTurner

Heads - Ligulate. Involucral bracts 13-30, the apices tapered and pointed, the surfaces hairy and glandular.

	Flowering heads.
© SRTurner

	Flowering head.
© SRTurner

	Involucres.
© SRTurner

Florets - Ligulate florets 25-120, the corollas orange (drying scarlet to purplish), 10-14 mm long. Pappus of 25-30 white bristles 3.5-4.0 mm long, in a single series.

	Florets.
© SRTurner

	Florets.
© SRTurner

Flowering - May - August.

Habitat - Fields, lawns, roadsides, disturbed areas.

Origin - Europe.

Lookalikes - Hieracium caespitosum.

Other info. - This attractive species was first grown in the U.S. as an imported ornamental, probably in Vermont some time prior to 1875. It soon escaped cultivation and spread throughout New England, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Currently it is found mostly in northern states and is sometimes considered a nuisance weed in those areas. It can invade moist areas such as logged clearings, cedar swamps, marshy ground, lakeshores, etc. It was recently reported in Missouri for the first time by Doug Ladd (Missouriensis 2023, 32-36), possibly as an escape from nearby gardens. It could also be spread by hitchhiking on clothes and shoes of campers in northern regions, where it is found in abundance. The plant apparently does not thrive in lower elevations and latitudes, and is not expected to become a problem in our state.

The plant is easily identified by its orange ligulate flowering heads. The overall appearance is otherwise similar to that of the yellow-flowered Hieracium caespitosum, for which it could be mistaken when not in flowering condition.

There is an increasing tendency to segregate this species into the genus Pilosella, where it becomes Pilosella aurantiaca. The proposed differentiation is based on the stoloniferous habit, single series of pappus bristles, projecting ribs at the apicies of the fruits, and molecular data.

Photographs taken near Hebard Park, [upper peninsula of] MI, 7-8-2023 (SRTurner).