Castilleja affinis |
Castilleja grisea |
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California paintbrush, coast Indian paintbrush, coast paintbrush, Indian paintbrush |
San Clemente Island Indian paintbrush, San Clemente Island paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.4–6 dm; caudex woody; with a taproot. | Subshrubs or shrubs, perennial, 4–6(–10) dm, to 20 dm wide; from a woody caudex; with thick, woody 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. |
many, spreading and ascending, much-branched, with short, leafy axillary shoots, proximal stems 1+ cm wide, hairs dense, spreading, matted, white, medium length, soft, stellate, sometimes mixed with short stipitate-glandular ones especially near inflorescence, partially obscuring surface. |
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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. |
ash gray, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–6.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane or slightly wavy, involute, 0–7-lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces almost obscured by hairs, at least when young; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to narrowly oblong, apex acute to acuminate. |
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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. |
(3–)7.5–11.5 × 1.5–3.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally ± pale yellow, proximals sometimes greenish throughout, linear to narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, (3–)5–7-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly oblong, long, proximal lobes arising below mid length, apex obtuse to acute. |
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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. |
curved in proximal 1/3, 15–25 mm; tube 11 mm; abaxial lip not exserted, sometimes visible in abaxial cleft, beak exserted; beak adaxially green or dull yellow, 7–9 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, 1–2 mm, less than 25% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 0.7–1 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, 10–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5.5–7 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0–1 mm, 0–8% of calyx length; lobes oblong, apex truncate to rounded or obtuse, rarely emarginate, inner surface glandular. |
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2n | = 48, 72, 96. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja affinis |
Castilleja grisea |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Jun. | |||||||||
Habitat | Coastal terraces and slopes, cliffs and canyon walls, coastal sage scrub. | |||||||||
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.) |
Castilleja grisea is endemic to a small portion of San Clemente Island in Los Angeles County, which is managed by the U.S. Navy. It was one of the first plants listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of the United States, and its near extinction was due to grazing by feral goats. Plants responded well when the goats were removed, spreading from their last refuge on inaccessible cliffs onto gentle terrain at the southern end of the island, near the type locality, and are now locally fairly common. Ungrazed old shrubs can reach 1 m in height and 2 m in breadth and often have a thick woody trunk. The stellate pubescence is unusual in Castilleja. Castilleja grisea 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. 611. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||
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Synonyms | C. hololeuca subsp. grisea | |||||||||
Name authority | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | Dunkle: Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 42: 31. (1943) | ||||||||
Web links |