Castilleja affinis |
Castilleja aquariensis |
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California paintbrush, coast Indian paintbrush, coast paintbrush, Indian paintbrush |
Aquarius paintbrush, Aquarius Plateau Indian paintbrush, Aquarius Plateau paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.4–6 dm; caudex woody; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 1.1–3.9 dm; from a woody caudex; with numerous, thickened roots. | ||||||||
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. |
few to several, ascending to erect, unbranched, hairs moderately dense, often retrorse, short, ± stiff, stipitate-glandular distally only in inflorescence. |
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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. |
appressed-ascending, green to purplish, linear to narrowly lanceolate, distal sometimes broadly lanceolate, (1–)2.5–4(–5.5) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 0(–5)-lobed, apex rounded to acuminate; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, apex acute. |
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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. |
2–7 × 1.5–2 cm; bracts proximally pale green to pale yellow-green, distally pale to bright yellow or cream, rarely pale orange, elliptic, narrowly ovate, elliptic-oblong, broadly lanceolate, or ovate, (0–)3(–5)-lobed; lobes ascending or spreading, narrowly lanceolate, short, arising near tip on distal bracts, central lobe apex rounded to truncate, lateral ones acute to rounded. |
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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. |
straight, 17–25 mm; tube 9–13 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green, 6–8(–12) mm, margins red or reddish brown, short-hairy; abaxial lip green, reduced, sometimes exserted, 1.5–2 mm, 10–15% as long as beak, glabrous; teeth erect, green, 0.5–1.5 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. |
proximally green to yellowish, distal 1/2 yellow, (16–)18–25 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts (8–)9.5–12.5 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–5(–6) mm, 5–20% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate to ovate, apex acute to obtuse. |
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2n | = 48, 72, 96. |
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Castilleja affinis |
Castilleja aquariensis |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | |||||||||
Habitat | Meadows with sagebrush, openings in spruce-fir forests. | |||||||||
Elevation | 2900–3400 m. (9500–11200 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA; nw Mexico
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UT
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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.) |
Castilleja aquariensis is endemic to the Aquarius Plateau in the mountains of south-central Utah. Its meadow habitats were severely degraded by livestock grazing, and at one time the species was a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act of the United States. It is still a species of management concern. Castilleja aquariensis is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (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. 589. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Name authority | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | N. H. Holmgren: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 100: 87, fig. 3. (1973) | ||||||||
Web links |