WiseAcre Gardens

north of the adirondacks – wildflowers & perennials that survive winters colder than my wife's feet

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Roadside Wildflowers – June 26

Posted by WiseAcre on Jun 26th, 2008

2008

Jun 26

Hawkweed – Vetch

Today’s special is two for one.

Orange Hawkweed

Devil’s Paintbrush – Orange Hawkweed

Hieracium aurantiacum

I love the name Devil’s Paintbrush. Makes me want to go paint the town red.

My lawn should be filled with these but the mad mower has been busy. But they can be seen almost everywhere you go in the area.

Both the Hawkweeds and the Vetch were found along the Backwoods Road in the Town of Colton.

King Devil

Yellow Hawkweed

Hieracium pratense

King Devil

The second double is Vetch.

Crown Vetch

Crown Vetch

Coronilla varia

It took this photo to make me see thru this ‘flower’. Note how you can look through the center. It’s really an umbrel of multiple flowers.

Cow Vetch

Cow Vetch

Vicia cracca

Vetches are members of the pea family and are legumes. Once used as cattle fodder these plants are common alien wildflowers that have made most fields their home. If you ever tried to weed Vetch out of a garden you’ll know just how persistant it can be. It keeps comming back if you leave any root at all and it’s almost impossible to get all the root. But if you don’t keep yanking it out it will soon create a tangled colony that will claim independence.
Cow Vetch with moths

It might be alien but these moths don’t seem to mind.

Crown Vetch

2 Responses

Mr. McGregor's Daughter Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I’ve never seen the orange Hawkweed, but the yellow is common around here. Crown vetch is being replaced in highway plantings with praire plants. It does have an attractive flower.

Mr. McGregor’s Daughter,
It does seem that the yellow hawkweed is far more common. We’ve got plenty of orange but the yellow vastly outnumbers it.

Crown Vetch is very pretty but it can be an aggressive weed. I don’t see much of it around here and in fact it caught me by surprise. Glad to hear that the highway department is going ‘native’.
Mark Eccleston Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Hi Wise acre,
They are a Skipper of some sort, they are not moths. There is an argument that they are a species in their own right as they are half way between a butterfly and a moth.

Hope this helps

Mark

Thanks Mark,
I’m not a bug person (except in looks) so didn’t have a clue to what they are. Skippers is good enough for me. Learn something new everyday – I never knew there was a middle ground between moths and butterflies.

Anyone interested can find more butterfly, moth and especially Dragonfly photos at The Green Fingered Photographer. Unlike me he knows what he’s shooting when taking pot shots at insects.