Castilleja angustifolia |
Castilleja mollis |
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narrow-leaf paintbrush, northwestern Indian paintbrush, northwestern paintbrush, violet desert paintbrush |
soft leaf Indian paintbrush, soft-leaf paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.9–3.8(–4) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, 3–4 dm; from a woody caudex; with woody roots. | ||||||||
Stems | few to many, ascending to erect, branched, especially near base, sometimes unbranched, hairs sparse to dense, spreading to retrorse, long, sometimes short, soft to stiff, usually mixed with short-glandular ones, sometimes viscid. |
few to several, ± prostrate, sometimes ascending, much-branched, with dense, matlike growth form, often with short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs dense, tangled, short to long, fairly stiff, branched, sometimes glandular, white-woolly. |
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Leaves | brown or purplish, sometimes green, linear to lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 1.2–7(–7.5) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, involute or flat, (0–)3–5-lobed, rarely with secondary lobes, apex acuminate to rounded; lobes spreading, oblong or lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, apex acute to rounded. |
green to deep purple, narrowly elliptic to oblong, ovate, or obovate, 1–3 cm, ± fleshy, margins plane or ± wavy, flat, 0-lobed, apex rounded, rarely acute. |
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Inflorescences | 2.5–20 × 1.5–5 cm; bracts proximally greenish or dull purplish, distally pink, magenta, pink-purple, reddish pink, pale yellow, pale yellow-orange, pale orange, or white, rarely reddish or orange-red, lanceolate to oblong, 3–5(–9)-lobed, sometimes with secondary lobes; lobes spreading or ascending, oblanceolate or linear, proximal lobes often much longer than distal, proximal lobes arising below or a little above mid length, apex acute to rounded. |
usually erect, 2.5–8 × 1.5–4 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally pale to bright yellow, sometimes brownish orange, sometimes with brownish orange medial band, oblong, elliptic, or obovate, ± cup-shaped, ± fleshy, 0–3-lobed; lobes erect, oblong, short, arising near tip, central lobe apex rounded to truncate, sometimes crenate or with obtuse teeth, lateral ones obtuse. |
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Corollas | straight, 18–27(–32) mm; tube 8–17 mm; beak usually long-exserted, adaxially green or pink, 8–15 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, inconspicuous, 1–2.5 mm, 5–20% as long as beak; teeth incurved to ascending, deep green, 0.5–1.5 mm. |
straight, 17–26 mm; tube 12–13 mm; beak often slightly exserted, adaxially green to yellow-green, 11–13 mm; abaxial lip green, reduced, 1.5–3.5 mm, 10–20% as long as beak; teeth incurved, reduced, green, 0.5–1 mm. |
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Calyces | proximally green, yellow, brown, or purple, lobes colored as bract lobes, sometimes with a yellow band between proximal and distal parts, 13–25(–28) mm; abaxial clefts 3–8 mm, adaxial 5–9(–12) mm, clefts 30–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (1–)1.5–4(–5) mm, 10–25% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate to oblong, abaxials wider than adaxials, apex acute to rounded. |
colored as bracts, lacking orange central band, 16–23 mm; abaxial clefts 9.5–14 mm, adaxial 8 mm, abaxial 50–67% of calyx length, adaxial 35–45% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 4.5–5 mm, 20–25% of calyx length; lobes oblong to triangular, abaxials sometimes wider than adaxials, apex acute to rounded, inner surface glabrous. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Castilleja angustifolia |
Castilleja mollis |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Aug. | |||||||||
Habitat | Sandy openings in coastal scrub, thin sandy soils over limestone terraces, north- or northwest-facing sandy bluffs, dunes. | |||||||||
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
ID; MT; NV; OR; SD; UT; WY
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CA
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Much confusion exists concerning Castilleja angustifolia and the closely related C. chromosa. Sometimes C. chromosa is treated as a variety of C. angustifolia, using the name C. angustifolia var. dubia. The latter name is used here to represent a different assemblage of plants, not including C. chromosa. At other times, C. chromosa is synonymized completely under C. angustifolia. However, the two species are in most cases easily separable, and where they are sympatric there is little evidence of intergradation. Both C. angustifolia var. dubia and C. chromosa are accepted here. See additional comments under 3b. C. angustifolia var. dubia and 15. C. chromosa. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja mollis is federally listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of the United States. It is endemic to the coastal terraces of the northern portion of Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara County, in the northern Channel Islands of southern California. It is recorded historically from San Miguel Island. Much of the available low-elevation habitat on Santa Rosa Island was degraded by trampling and grazing of introduced ungulates, which also resulted in the apparent loss of a natural population on the western end of San Miguel Island, last seen in the 1930s and now believed extirpated. Reports of C. mollis from the Oso Flaco Lake area of the mainland, in San Luis Obispo County, are based on populations of C. affinis var. contentiosa. Castilleja mollis is most closely related to C. latifolia of the central California coast and a sister species to the north, C. mendocinensis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 586. | FNA vol. 17, p. 632. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Euchroma angustifolia | |||||||||
Name authority | (Nuttall) G. Don: Gen. Hist. 4: 616. 1837/1838 | Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 99: 185. (1947) | ||||||||
Web links |