5 things to discover about Orange Hawkweed - Fox and Cubs

Finches Lane Wild flower Florilegium of Britain and Ireland

5 things you might not know about the wild flower -

Fox and Cubs (and a quick lesson in the Battle of the plants)

1. Fox and Cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca) or Orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) is one of our few bright oranges in our native flora. The flowers are on tall hairy stems, and its closest relative is the lemon-colored Mouse Ear Hawkweed. Neither of them are true hawkweeds and have been given new Latin names to classify them. True hawkweeds are named Hieracium, and this subfamily is Pilosella. They are all from the Asteraceae family alongside sunflowers, daisies, dandelions, and sowthistles. Unlike some of the Asteraceae family, they don’t have a center like a daisy, but the flower head is a dense mass of individual florets with petals and stamens. Each petal will become a seed head like the dandelion.

2. The bright colour of the Fox and Cubs flower is actually grey to bees, as orange/red color is not on the visible spectrum to most insects. The pollen and petals are seen through the ultraviolet spectrum and are a good source of nectar.

3. Fox and cubs' local name is based on the orange flowers that bloom first and the small charcoal-coloured buds that hide underneath. The buds have also been thought to remind people of coal mines due to their blackened appearance.

4. The perennial plant always has a circular rosette of leaves at the base of the stem and flowers in June and July. It spreads through the dandelion-type clock of seeds with a little hairy parachute and also through runners and rhizome growth. It grows vigorously under the right conditions.

5. While not poisonous to humans (despite being unpleasant to taste but used as a medicinal herb) or animals (rabbits and deer enjoy it), both Fox and Cubs and Mouse-ear Hawkweed are toxic to other plants.The name for its toxicity is allelopathy - the pollen spread by insects interferes with the fertility of nearby plants by chemically sterilizing other plants' seeds by killing the embryo so they cannot reproduce. Because of this, certain parts of the world regard it as an invasive and noxious weed, including parts of the USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

More on Allelopathy

Other plants in the UK and Ireland that use allelopathy to increase their chances of survival.

Himalayan Balsam  An invasive and non-native species in the UK that releases chemicals from its roots, suppressing the germination and growth of native wildflowers.

Bracken  A fern that produces toxins as it decays, making the nearby soil difficult for other plants to survive.

Garlic Mustard  A common little white-flowered plant that alters underground fungal networks and soil chemistry through allelopathy, stopping other plants from growing next to it.

Companion planting:

Allotment gardeners will often research which plants are the best companion plants and will have found that particular species will inhibit other plants' growth through chemicals either in:

• the rotting seedheads (sunflowers),

• rotting leaves (eucalyptus),

• root masses (cucumber will affect lettuces),

• fungal chemicals in the soil (fennel and oregano), or

• cover crops like buckwheat and barley that are used to suppress weeds by farmers.

If you like the colour orange like I do, check out the patterns in the Retro Redo and the Beech Trees' Collections at our shops, at the moment we have wallpaper, fabrics and home wares.

All these patterns are available at Spoonflower. Click the link below to see all of them.

All these patterns are available at Spoonflower. Click the link below to see all of them.