This dazzler is the plant variously known as orange hawkweed, Grim-the-collier, fox-and-cubs and botanically as Hieracium aurantiacum. It’s a naturalised garden escape, establishing itself on stony ground and sending out creeping runners until it becomes a dense eye-catching colony. The reference to foxes is obvious enough, with the tawny orange ‘cubs’ grouped around a central ‘vixen’, but the reference to coal miners is a bit more cryptic. I’ve always assumed that the name comes from the ease with which it colonised coal mine spoil tips, thanks to its ability to thrive in such unpromising soils, but I recently read that it’s to do with the black hairs in the flower head. A closer look reveals that they do resemble sooty black whiskers, so maybe that's the reason. Whatever the derivation of the name, the flower colour is stunning.....
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