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(updated November 25, 2022) 

Orange Hawkweed, King-Devil

Hieracium aurantiacum L.

Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

▲ colony of mature plants

▲ individual crown with flowering stem and rhizome

▲ small cluster of crowns

▲ larger colony in lawn area

▲ closer view of leaves in colony, showing stiff hairs on leaves

▲▼flowering stems

▲▼flowering stems showing stiff hairs with black base of  hairs

▲▼flowering stems showing stiff hairs with black base of  hairs

▲ closer view of rigid stem hairs

▲▼ inflorescences

▲▼ inflorescences

▲▼ inflorescences

▲ inflorescences, and fruiting heads

▲▼stems with rhizomes

Hieracium aurantiacum L., Orange Hawkweed:  (Bayer Code:  HIEAU; US Code HIAU)

·         European native, stolon-producing, creeping perennial weed that produces leafless to nearly leafless stems 6-24 inches tall above a rosette of clustered leaves; stems have many stiff, outspread hairs, many with darker glands at their base, particularly in upper portion of the stems

·         Basal rosette leaves are green, alternate, with pointed or round-pointed tips; leaves usually covered with many long, stiff, white hairs, but sometimes may be hairless

·         Head inflorescences are 0.5 to 1 inch in diameter, dandelion-like, in clusters at tips of usually leafless stems; heads have no disk flowers, but 25-120 or more orange to red-orange ray flowers; the orange “petals” have 4 notches in their flattened tips

·         A single row of bracts below the head form a cylindrical to barrel-shape; individual bracts are green, linear, with long-pointed tips; bracts have a center ridge of black, gland-based hairs; stems just below the heads have the same black hairs

·         Flowering is from mid-spring through mid-autumn

·         After flowering the florets from the head become a globe of white hairs from the pappus (parachute-like hairs) attached to small, brown to black, mature seed/fruit

·         Prefers low-fertility, acidic, sandy soils; found in lawns, cultivated fields, pastures, non-crop areas, right-of-ways

·         More common in northern Midwest, and is a problem due to the monocultures it develops as it spreads laterally by stolons

·         Similar species:

   o   Yellow Hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum) looks very similar to orange hawkweed in leaf shape, growth form and height, except it has bright yellow florets in its flower heads

   o   Tall Hawkweed (Hieracium piloselloides) looks very similar, but has leaves that are hairless except for long white hairs along the leaf edges, and along the midvein on the leaf undersides

   o   Common Catsear (Hypochaeris radicata) has similar yellow flowers, but has a more branched, open clustering of flower heads, and individual heads have long supporting stalks; also the basal rosette leaf margins of common catsear are widely lobed, not smooth or toothed, as with yellow hawkweed

   o   Smooth Hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris) has similar, but smaller, yellow flowers, but they are in larger, more open clusters; plus stems and basal leaves are hairless, and basal leaves have deep, pointed lobes, and there are smaller leaves along the flowering stems

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