Bulletin No. 32. 

 THREE TROUBLESOME WEEDS. 



F. L. Harvey. 



ORANGE HAWKWEED. 



Hieraciam aurantiacum, L. 



(Order Compositae; Sunflower Family.) 



HISTORY. 



Orange Hawkweed, a native of Europe, was introduced into 

 the United States a few years ago and has spread rapidly. Its 

 occurrence in Maine has been known for over ten years. It is 

 now widely distributed in the State and in many places has over- 

 run grass lands, orchards, pastures and roadsides. It is some- 

 times grown in gardens as an ornamental plant. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Stem simple, erect, nearly leafless, one to two feet high, 

 clothed with hairs, those at the top of the stem black at the 

 base. Leaves mostly at the roots, oblong-lanceolate, toothed, 

 hairy on both sides and without a petiole. The conspicuous 

 heads of orange colored flowers in a flat-topped cluster at the 

 end of the stem. Heads composed of numerous small orange 

 colored flowers, each one of which produces at its base a small 

 dark brown, ten-ribbed seed-like fruit, which is provided at the 

 top with dirty white hair-like bristles, by means of which the 

 wind spreads the numerous seeds far and wide. The plant is 

 shown in the plate on the following page. This cut and the 

 others used in this bulletin are from publications of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. 



