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.
