English: A single inflorescence of Pilosella aurantiaca (family Asteraceae) showing the distinctive black trichomes (plant hairs) referenced in its oldest English common name, Grim-the-collier, which likens them to sooty grime on the face of the figure from English folklore of the same name. Grim the Collier is a somewhat villainous charcoal-burner or coal miner/merchant who features in no fewer than three sixteenth-century plays - one of which actually bears his name, despite the fact that he is not the main character in the drama.

P. aurantiaca is a common weed species in the Scottish Borders, where it is widely tolerated for the sake of its attractive fiery orange flowers, despite the fact that it can prove invasive, thanks to both its spreading stoloniferous leaf rosettes and ‘dandelion clock’ seed heads with their wind-distributed, seed-like fruits - each with its own pappus ( downy ‘parachute’ ).

This specimen was photographed in a municipal flower bed in the border town of Biggar.