Last year, as I was timidly letting my backyard go wild, I started spotting something that looked like it would be flowers and not a tall grass or weeds, but hadn’t the faintest idea what they might be.
Once they opened up, I took pictures and did some research. They turned out to be Devil’s Paintbrush aka hawkweed (Pilosella aurantiaca). These can be a pest and unwanted and/or invasive weed to many, but so far they’ve not out-competed the other plants here at all. From what little research I’ve done on them last year and this, both the yellow and the orange are simply considered “common” in Massachusetts, not listed as an invasive.
I was happy to see even a few more of them this year that
had traveled to the front yard and mixed in with the fleabane there.
They may turn into a headache down the road, but so far seeing them return this year was like greeting a recently made friend. The pollinators certainly haven’t shunned them either.
