Pilosella aurantiaca (L.) F.W. Schultz & Sch. Bip., Fox-and-cubs

Account Summary

Growth form and introduction

This is a very persistent, winter-green, freely-seeding, rhizomatous or stolon-bearing, patch-forming perennial that colonises dry, usually grassy, waste ground or wall-crevice habitats. It is a distinctive, vividly colourful, if rather small-flowered, vigorous garden escape or discard with several capitula (flowerheads) (18-20 mm diameter), clustered at the top of erect, leafless flowering stems (scapes) densely covered with numerous dark, glandular hairs. The reddish-orange or brick-red colour of the flowers is very reminiscent of the fur of a fox and since very often at the start of its flowering period, one capitulum is fully open and is tightly surrounded by a cluster of heads in bud, this has given rise to the well-known English common name 'Fox-and-cubs'.

The plant is visually attractive and was first introduced to gardens (especially rock-gardens) in B & I from its C European native area around 1629. It had escaped over the garden wall by 1793. As it seeds itself abundantly and spreads by means of both short (5-12 cm long) but vigorous and numerous surface stolons and subterranean rhizomes, it often invades lawns and gets in around the base of other garden plants (Butcher 1961). Thus it quickly outgrows its welcome in the garden setting, becoming a weedy subject that needs to be dug up and discarded, burnt or composted.

Fermanagh occurrence

P. aurantiaca has been recorded in twelve scattered Fermanagh sites, often on walls or near buildings, including churchyards where it may originally have been planted. Otherwise, it appears on mown grassy banks, waste ground or in derelict quarries where it has possibly or definitely been dumped along with other garden rubbish.

P. aurantiaca has grown on the bank of the disused railway line near Drumrush for at least 25 years.

Irish occurrence

Although P. aurantiaca has been recorded at least once from twelve Irish VCs (which does not include Fermanagh), according to Reynolds (Cat Alien Pl Ir) the species is, "an occasional garden escape, more common in northern VCs". Having said that, Reynolds lists only one or two records in each mentioned Irish VC during the post-1970 period she is covering. Perhaps she is merely being selective, but this does suggests to the current author (RSF) that the twelve Fermanagh sites in eleven tetrads represent a greater presence or recorder awareness of this neophyte, than is the average elsewhere on the island!

The records of P. aurantiaca in McNeill's (2010) Flora of County Tyrone are at least double those found in adjacent Co Fermanagh, his map showing a total of 25 5-km squares with records scattered widely across the county. Again, in Tyrone, McNeill comments that, "a third of all sites in the county are in Church of Ireland churchyards".

In Co Wexford (H12), the far SW of the RoI, Green (2022) has recorded P. aurantiaca in around 40 sites, by far the most comprehensive record of this garden escape in Ireland.

British occurrence

In Britain, P. aurantiaca has been an established garden escape for over 200 years and is widely naturalised on roadsides, waste ground, walls and pavements, usually close to human habitation. It is also commonly recorded along railway banks and in churchyards throughout the country. The known distribution of P. aurantiaca has increased considerably since the 1960s and it is now one of the most common aliens found in mown grasslands in man-made or disturbed habitats throughout Britain.

A hybrid with the related native species P. officinarum (Mouse-ear-hawkweed) has also been recorded from time to time (Clement & Foster 1994; Stace & Crawley 2015).

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