Castilleja affinis |
Castilleja affinis var. contentiosa |
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California paintbrush, coast Indian paintbrush, coast paintbrush, Indian paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.4–6 dm; caudex woody; with a taproot. | |||||||||
Stems | few to many, erect to ascending, unbranched or branched at proximal nodes, sometimes with short, leafy axillary branches, hairs sparse to dense, spreading, short and long, soft to stiff, unbranched, sometimes branched, eglandular, sometimes stipitate-glandular. |
hairs sparse proximally, becoming fairly dense distally, branched. |
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Leaves | green or purplish, sometimes red-brown, linear or linear-oblong to broadly lanceolate, 2–13 cm, not or ± fleshy, margins wavy or plane, flat or involute, 0–5-lobed, sometimes with small secondary lobes, short, leafy axillary shoots common, usually conspicuous, apex acuminate or acute to rounded; lobes spreading, linear to lanceolate, lateral lobes almost as wide as mid blade, apex acute to rounded. |
often ± fleshy. |
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Inflorescences | 3–25(–30) × 1.5–5 cm; bracts proximally green or deep purple, distally red, crimson, scarlet, pink, pinkish purple, pinkish red, or yellow, sometimes rose magenta, red-orange, or orange, oblanceolate or obovate to oblong or lanceolate, (0–)3–5(–7)-lobed; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to obovate, long, proximal lobes at or arising below mid length, apices acute to obtuse, center lobe sometimes rounded. |
2–4 cm wide; bracts proximally greenish to dull purplish, distally pink to pinkish purple or pinkish red, sometimes yellow, pinkish white, red, or pale orange, (0–)3–5-lobed. |
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Pedicels | 0 mm or nearly so. |
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Corollas | straight or ± curved, 17–40 mm; tube 10–15 mm; beak long-exserted to subequal to calyx, adaxially green, 7–20 mm, puberulent, eglandular; abaxial lip deep green to reddish, brown, or deep purple, reduced, inconspicuous, included in calyx, 1.5–3 mm, 15–25% as long as beak; teeth ascending, green, 0.5–2 mm. |
25–30 mm; beak subequal with or exserted from calyx, 14–20 mm. |
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Calyces | proximally pale or green, distally as in distal portion of bracts, 14–35 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–22 mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2–7 mm, 15–25% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate or oblong, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, sometimes curved upward. |
colored as bracts or paler near base, 15–25 mm. |
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2n | = 48, 72, 96. |
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Castilleja affinis |
Castilleja affinis var. contentiosa |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Aug(–Sep). | |||||||||
Habitat | Coastal scrub, stabilized dunes, canyons. | |||||||||
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA; nw Mexico
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CA |
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Castilleja affinis is highly variable and one of the more common paintbrushes at lower elevations in California, west of the Sierra Nevada, from the northern coast south to northern Baja California. Some recent authors (for example, M. Wetherwax et al. 2012) include C. litoralis of the Pacific Northwest coast as a subspecies of C. affinis, but due to the high polyploid nature of C. litoralis and its significantly closer morphological resemblance to C. miniata var. dixonii, that treatment is not followed here. Also see the comments under 62. C. litoralis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety contentiosa is restricted to the immediate coast in southern San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties, where it replaces var. affinis. The distinctive branched hairs impart a grayish cast to the plants, and this variety is further distinguished by the commonly pink to pink-purple or purplish red inflorescences. Variety affinis usually has unbranched hairs and reddish to red-orange inflorescences. Transitional plants exist a few miles inland from the coastal populations of var. contentiosa. This form has also been confused with Castilleja miniata, from which it differs in numerous characters, including pubescence and leaf and calyx morphologies, as well as with the insular C. mollis, which is distinguished by its largely decumbent stems and broad, rounded, usually unlobed leaves and bracts. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 582. | FNA vol. 17, p. 583. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja > Castilleja affinis | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | C. douglasii var. contentiosa | |||||||||
Name authority | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | (J. F. Macbride) Bacigalupi: Leafl. W. Bot. 10: 286. (1966) | ||||||||
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