June 14

The orange hawkweed, close cousin to the king devil, is popping up now in the open fields and roadsides. There are still plenty of the yellow king devils to be found, easy to spot with their clustered dandelion-like flowers atop tall, hairy stems. This year was a mast year for king devils, if such a word is appropriate for wildflowers; the town seems to have them everywhere these past couple of weeks.

The orange hawkweed has been slower to arrive, despite its close association in form and habitat. It is the prettier of the two, with sunset orange clusters that open with daybreak and display their contrast well against the greens of the open fields. This flower goes by the name Devil’s Paintbrush or Indian Paintbrush in the vernacular.

When seeking a plant suitable to study hybridization, Gregor Mendel was encouraged to consider hawkweeds as his model. Though pretty, they don’t exhibit the dichotomous characters as do the peas, and had Mendel chosen the Devil’s Paintbrush instead, his mathematical observations may have been delayed for another to discern.