The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

attenuate paintbrush, valley-tassels

Castilleja elmeri

Elmer's paintbrush

Habit Slender annual 1-3.5 dm. tall, the stem usually simple, the herbage with short, stiff spreading hairs throughout. Perennial herb, the stems clustered, erect or ascending from a woody base, 1.5-3 dm. tall, usually unbranched, viscid-villous.
Leaves

Leaves alternate, all cauline, narrowly lance-linear, long-tapered to the base, 2-6 cm. long, entire or the upper 3-cleft.

Leaves alternate, linear-lanceolate, usually entire, viscid-puberulent;

bracts broader than the leaves, oblong-ovate, viscid-villous, usually entire and rounded.

Flowers

Inflorescence elongate and narrow, the bracts becoming shorter and more cleft than the leaves, white or yellowish;

calyx equally lobed;

corolla 1-2.5 cm. long, linear, whitish to pinkish, the lower lip more yellowish with some purple spots;

teeth of the lower lip erect, slender, nearly equaling the galea

Inflorescence showy, crimson to yellow, with intermediate colors not uncommon;

calyx 15-25 mm. long, equally cleft above and below, its primary lobes again divided into 2 blunt segments;

corolla 20-30 mm. long, the upper lip nearly as long as the tube and 4-5 times as long as the dark green, thickened, lower lip;

stamens 4;

ovary superior.

Fruits

Capsule.

Capsule.

Castilleja attenuata

Castilleja elmeri

Flowering time April-June June-August
Habitat Drier areas at low elevations. Moist, open slopes at middle elevations to the subalpine.
Distribution
Occurring chiefly west of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California and Arizona.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington from the Wenatchee Mountains and northward; south-central British Columbia to Kittitas County in Washington.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Native Native
Conservation status Not of concern Not of concern
Sibling taxa
C. ambigua, C. cervina, C. chambersii, C. cryptantha, C. cusickii, C. elmeri, C. exserta, C. hispida, C. levisecta, C. litoralis, C. lutescens, C. miniata, C. minor, C. parviflora, C. rupicola, C. suksdorfii, C. tenuis, C. thompsonii, C. victoriae
C. ambigua, C. attenuata, C. cervina, C. chambersii, C. cryptantha, C. cusickii, C. exserta, C. hispida, C. levisecta, C. litoralis, C. lutescens, C. miniata, C. minor, C. parviflora, C. rupicola, C. suksdorfii, C. tenuis, C. thompsonii, C. victoriae
Web links