UW Burke Herbarium species comparison

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

Castilleja miniata

Castilleja levisecta

common paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush
Castilleja levisecta

golden paintbrush
Habit Perennial herb to 80 cm tall; stems in small clusters, often branched above. Perennial, the stems several, unbranched, decumbent, 1-5 dm. tall, softly sticky-villous.
Leaves

Simple, narrow with pointed tip;

inflorescence leaves and bracts bright red, sometimes with a few small lobes.

Leaves viscid-villous, the lower ones entire, linear-lanceolate, the upper ones oblong-ovate to oblong-obovate, with1-3 pairs of short, lateral lobes on the upper 1/3 of the blade.
Flowers

Inconspicuous, greenish, tubular flowers, surrounded by a much showier bright red calyx and inflorescence bracts.

Inflorescence straight and upright, becoming elongate, the flowers remote and hidden by the overlapping bracts;

bracts about the width of the upper leaves, oblong, obtuse, puberulent, with 1-3 pairs of short, lateral lobes near the apex, golden yellow;

calyx 15-18 mm. long, deeply cleft above and below, its primary lobes again divided into 2 linear segments;

corolla 20-23 mm. long, the upper lip slender, about 3-4 times the length of the lower lip;

stamens 4.
Fruits

2-celled capsules with many seeds.

Capsule.
Comments

Our most common Castilleja in the mountians.

Castilleja miniata

Castilleja levisecta
Identification notes A few traits to look for include the narrow unlobed leaves; bright red inflorescence; sharply pointed calyx lobes, and greenish flowers much longer than calyx. Castilleja is a difficult genus; consult technical keys.
Flowering time May-September April-September
Habitat Mountain meadows and slopes; also on coastal bluffs; widespread and common. Meadows and prairies at low elevations.
Distribution
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes region.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Puget Sound of Washington; Vancouver Island south to the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Native Native
Conservation status Not of concern Threatened in Washington (WANHP)
Sibling taxa
C. ambigua, C. attenuata, C. cervina, C. chambersii, C. cryptantha, C. cusickii, C. elmeri, C. exserta, C. hispida, C. levisecta, C. litoralis, C. lutescens, 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. elmeri, C. exserta, C. hispida, C. litoralis, C. lutescens, C. miniata, C. minor, C. parviflora, C. rupicola, C. suksdorfii, C. tenuis, C. thompsonii, C. victoriae
Subordinate taxa
C. miniata var. dixonii, C. miniata var. miniata
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the University of Washington's Burke Herbarium.



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in UW Burke Herbarium yet, or it's listed under a synonym.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers