178 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



ORANGE HAWKWEED (Hieracium aurantiacum L.) 

 Other English names: Devil's Paint-brush, Paint-brush. 



Introduced from F^urope. Perennial, low-growing, throwing 

 out many creeping branches close to the ground. Filled with 

 bitter, milky sap. Whole plant very hairy. Flowering stems 

 1 to 2 feet, erect and simple, almost leafless, clothed with stellate 

 down, black gland-tipped hairs and long white hairs from black 

 tubercles, bearing at the top a corymb of about a dozen hand- 

 some flower heads nearly 1 inch across. The fiery orange-red 

 of the flowers is very striking. Leaves long, rounded at the 

 top, gradually narrowing towards the base or lance-shaped, 

 blunt-pointed, 3 to 8 inches long, tufted, many lying down flat. 



The seed (Plate 76, fig. 100) is from 1/16 to 1/12 of an inch 

 long; purplish-black, unripe seed deep red; linear-oblong, cut 

 off square at the top, pointed at the base, strongly 10-ribbed 

 lengthwise, the tops of the ribs forming a star-like rim around 

 the base of the dusky white pappus, which is not persistent. 



Time of flowering: June; seeds ripe by July. 



Propagation : By seeds and creeping stems. 



Occurrence: Abundant and troublesome in the upland 

 pastures of the Eastern Townships of Quebec and in some places 

 in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Reported occasion- 

 ally from Ontario and all the eastern provinces. 



Injury: A vigorous grower which spreads rapidly by its 

 runners and matures many seeds, by means of which it soon 

 overruns land that can not be plowed, the abundant and use- 

 less foliage displacing grass and ruining meadows and pastures. 



Remedy: Although a vigorous grower, all the roots are 

 close to the surface of the ground. In land used for crops, 

 plowing down followed by surface cultivation will kill it. In- 

 fested meadows and pastures must be broken up and put under 

 a short rotation of crops. For mountain pastures and uplands 

 where plowing is not practicable, small patches may be kept 

 from spreading by applying salt in hot dry weather, at the rate 



