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Pilosella aurantiaca (fox-and-cubs,[4]: 758 orange hawkweed,[5]: 208 devil's paintbrush,[6]: 324 grim-the-collier) is a perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae that is native to alpine regions of central and southern Europe, where it is protected in several regions.
It is a low-growing plant with shallow fibrous roots and a basal rosette of elliptical to lanceolate leaves 5–20 centimetres (2.0–7.9 in) long and 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) broad. All parts of the plant exude a milky juice. The flowering stem is usually leafless or with just one or two small leaves. The stem and leaves are covered with short stiff hairs (trichomes), usually blackish in color. The stems may reach a height of 60 centimetres (24 in) and have 2–25 capitula (flowerheads), each 1–2+1⁄2 cm diameter, bundled together at the end of short pedicels. The flowers are orange, almost red, which is virtually invisible to bees, yet they also reflect ultraviolet light, increasing their conspicuousness to pollinators. The flowers are visited by various insects, including many species of bees, butterflies, pollinating flies. The flowers themselves come in a range of colors from a deep rust-orange to a pure yellow and often show striking gradients of color. In the UK, it flowers in June and July. After flowering, it produces seed heads of the "dandelion clock" type, each individual cypsela (achene-like fruit resembling a seed) being equipped with its own pappus ("parachute") of white or pale brown hairs evolved as a mechanism for wind-dispersal.
The plant propagates through its wind-dispersed seeds, and also vegetatively via the stolons and shallow rhizomes in autumn or spring.
