Indian Paintbrush Flowers
I grew up knowing this flower as Indian Paintbrush but using Wikipedia I find it listed at Hawk Weed which is Hieracium aurantiacum. There are several other flowers that showed up as Indian Paintbrush. Good thing we have scientific names, and Wikipedia! Interestingly, Wikipedia does recognize this as one of the flowers with the common name of Indian Paintbrush, just a less common common name.
If you look very closely you’ll see a spider silk which held this flower still as I got my photo.
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Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
That’s very different from what I always called Indian Paintbrush. The color scheme’s about the same, though.
Walter,
We call that Indian Paintbrush too.
Did you ever see this?
http://homesteadgardenandpantry.com/garden/fields/yellow-hawkweed/
I have seen something like the yellow hawkweed too. Much less common here. Reading the Wiki entry I realize there are a tremendous number of flowers in this groups.
aka “devil’s paintbrush”
I know this as Indian Paintbrush as well. Maybe it’s a Vermont thing? Someone should ask the Abenaki.
Interesting what common names mean in different areas! I am used to Indian Paintbrush referring to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja but then your “milkweed” is probably true milkweed, mine refers to Japanese Knotweed. I have fond memories of Indian Paintbrush as it attracts some very pretty butterflies… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphydryas
We’ve always referred to this flower as the Indian Paintbrush in the Wisconsin/Minnesota area as well. I was very surprised to see different flowers when I searched for it in Google images.
Hi, just doing a search on the indian paintbrush and came across your blog. I am from the Laurentian area (north of Montreal) and i grew up thinking your flower is the indian paintbrush as well. Cheers, Brooke
I had always thought it was Indian Paintbrush, too!!
My mother taught me to identify this as Indian Paintbrush back in the early 1940s.
I knew this as Indian Paintbrush, too, and I’m from Eastern Ontario (Canada). So clearly the name was known across a very wide area. It seems to be almost nonexistent around my town lately, though…there was a lot more of it 20 or 30 years ago.
I grew up in upstate New York and also called this Indian Paintbrush. Have recently moved to Washington State and what they call here Indian Paintbrush is a very different plant. Funny.
Hello! Thank you so much for the amazing blog; so much great information.
I was curious to come across this post, as my main reason for wanting to get pigs is to eradicate a severe hawkweed infestation on a piece of abandoned pasture that I recently bought. I am very curious to know if your pigs eat this plant, and more importantly, if they dig up the roots and eat THOSE. I understand that rooting is dependent on management, but assuming that they were rooting in the first place…will they possibly eat my hawkweed? Any tips on breeds that may do this better than others? Thanks!
I have not observed pigs specifically eating the roots but I suspect they will. It is related to chicory and the pigs love chicory although mostly they eat graze the tops. However, that said, our pigs primarily graze. They’re lazy pigs who eat the top forages and then I rotate them round and round they go.
My absolute favorite wildflower. I haven’t seen any since I left Wisconsin years ago.
My Mother has called this Indian Paintbrush as well. I have both the yellow and orange growing on my property. I live in PA.
VERY invasive. Both Minnesota and Wisconsin, among other states, have been actively trying to rid. But I agree, beautiful, especially when surrounded by yellow buttercups and blue cornflowers like I had in back field as a child.