This is an introduction from North America where it is also known as Tarweed or Tarweed fiddleneck. It is appearing more and more often in the UK. It seems to prefer sandy soils and occasionally turns up here on our Cheshire sandstone based soils. This specimen was one of several which had appeared after a field had been allowed to go fallow for a year or so (The UK government sometimes pays farmers not to farm for various reasons and the process is called set-aside). It is a very hairy plant and the deep yellow or orange flowers can be quite tall - up to 50 cm.

A. micrantha has successfully colonised the east of England and Scotland but there is little in Wales and only one site in Ireland.

Set aside field near Scarborough 11th June 2005

Added on 10th October 2005, updated 28th June 2008, updated 26th Feb 2010, updated 3rd October 2013