Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum)
Heavy rain today after a long dryish spell. I went out this morning to wet my hair and welcome the rain. But now I'm having a rare sunday afternoon indoors, remembering yesterday when I took the photo above of a stand of Orange Hawkweed (also known as 'fox and cubs'). It's a plant I love to see. The books say it is a naturalized garden escape, but it seems to me to be naturally a part of the local flora besides the wild yellow hawkweeds and other dandelion-type flowers that grow tall in the hedges and field corners.
According to one book, hawkweeds were named after a belief of the ancient Romans that hawks ate them to strengthen their eyesight. A lovely idea. I hope to get some more books with stuff like that in them, maybe some of the old herbals, to add to my scientific knowledge of plants.
What lovely sunny flowers! They kind of remind me of the "Indian Paintbrush" flowers we have here in the Southwest U.S.
ReplyDeleteI guess those flowers are native to the U.K. because I never heard of them before. Thanks for sharing. Hope you are well.... :)