Castilleja disticha |
Castilleja miniata |
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wavyleaf Indian paintbrush |
common paintbrush, common red paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush, great red paintbrush, scarlet Indian paintbrush, scarlet or common or giant red paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.4–8 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 1.2–8(–10) dm; from a woody caudex (or slender rooting rhizomes in var. dixonii, var. miniata); with a taproot or with slender, branched roots from a rhizome. | ||||||||||||
Stems | many, erect, unbranched or branched, sometimes with small, leafy axillary branches, hairs spreading, long, soft, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
few to many, erect to ascending, rarely proximally decumbent or creeping and rooting at nodes, usually branched, glabrous, glabrate, or hairy, hairs spreading to ± retrorse, short to long, soft to stiff, rarely stipitate-glandular. |
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Leaves | green or purple-tinged, lanceolate to linear-oblong, 0.8–6.1 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex rounded to acute; lobes spreading-ascending, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate. |
green to purple, linear to lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, narrowly oblong, or ovate, (1.5–)3–8(–9.5) cm, thin and not fleshy or slightly to moderately thickened and slightly fleshy, margins plane, rarely wavy, flat to involute, whole leaf sometimes recurved downward, 0(–5)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes rounded; lobes ascending-spreading, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute. |
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Inflorescences | 3–34 × 1.5–3.5 cm; flowers usually distichous, remote, except distalmost; bracts proximally greenish, distally greenish, reddish, orange-red, or dull orange, rarely yellow, proximal bracts frequently greenish throughout, lanceolate to narrowly ovate or narrowly oblong-elliptic, 0(–3)-lobed, proximal wavy-margined; lobes ascending, triangular, short, arising near apex, apex acute to obtuse. |
3–15(–22) × 1.5–5.5 cm, often bearing a thin, white, powdery exudate, especially on bract surfaces; bracts greenish, scarlet, red, red-orange, or pale orange throughout, sometimes pink, magenta, pink-purple, yellow, greenish yellow, white, or salmon throughout, or proximally greenish, distally colored as above, lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 0–5(–7)-lobed, central lobes sometimes distally apiculate; lobes erect, linear to lanceolate, oblong, or oblanceolate, short or medium length, arising near or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate, lateral ones rounded to acute or acuminate. |
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Pedicels | 0–5 mm. |
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Corollas | ± curved, 25–38 mm; tube 14–18 mm; beak and often abaxial lip exserted; beak adaxially dull orange or dull red, rarely yellow, 14–19 mm; abaxial lip slightly curved, green, red, whitish, or yellow, not inflated, 2–2.5 mm, 15% as long as beak; teeth incurved, deep green to reddish, 1–1.5 mm. |
slightly curved, 20–48 mm; tube 12–26 mm; abaxial lip usually not exserted, though often visible in front calyx cleft, beak partially to fully exserted; beak adaxially green to yellow-green or whitish, (9–)14–25 mm; abaxial lip incurved or ascending, deep green or green, sometimes deep purple or yellowish, reduced, not inflated, visible in front cleft, 0.5–3.5 mm, 5–20% as long as beak (to ca. 33% as long as beak in some populations of var. miniata); teeth incurved or erect, green or white, 0.7–1.5 mm. |
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Calyces | proximally whitish, green, or purple, distally colored as bracts, 9–18 mm; abaxial clefts 6–6.5 mm, adaxial 7–9 mm, clefts 33+% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1.5–4 mm, ca. 10% of calyx length; lobes linear-lanceolate, apex acute. |
colored as bracts, 15–38 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–24 mm, 35–70% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (1–)3–8(–12) mm, 5–30% of calyx length; lobes linear or narrowly lanceolate to narrowly triangular, apex acute to acuminate or obtuse. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
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Castilleja disticha |
Castilleja miniata |
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Phenology | Flowering (May–)Jun–Aug(–Sep). | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Open conifer forests, rocky or sandy slopes, montane to subalpine. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 1600–3000 m. (5200–9800 ft.) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Castilleja disticha is limited to the central and southern Sierra Nevada. Although similar to C. applegatei and C. martini, C. disticha is distinctive and unique in its long, colorful, and highly exserted corollas with the beak exceeding the tube in length, calyces more brightly colored than the often unlobed bracts, and tall, strongly distichous growth form. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Castilleja miniata is widely recognized as the common scarlet paintbrush. It is highly variable and has five levels of polyploidy. Nonetheless, it remains fairly well defined morphologically across its wide range. Native Americans use it medicinally. A probable hybrid with C. septentrionalis from southern Nevada was named C. ×porterae Cockerell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 603. | FNA vol. 17, p. 627. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. applegatei subsp. disticha | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Eastwood: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 3, 2: 289. (1902) — (as Castilleia) | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | ||||||||||||
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