Castilleja disticha
Castilleja tomentosa
wavyleaf Indian paintbrush
hairy Indian paintbrush, tomentose paintbrush
many, erect, unbranched or branched, sometimes with small, leafy axillary branches, hairs spreading, long, soft, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones.
few to many, ascending to erect, unbranched or branched, with short, leafy axillary shoots, moderately lanate, hairs prostrate to spreading, whitish, unbranched, short, fairly soft, eglandular.
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, linear to narrowly lanceolate, (0.8–)3–5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, strongly involute, 0–3(–5)-lobed, apex acute to rounded;
lobes spreading, linear, short, apex acute.
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.
5–20 × 0.5–2.5 cm;
bracts proximally dull brownish to deep greenish purple, distally red, red-orange, or orange, lanceolate or oblong to obovate, deeply 3(–5)-lobed;
lobes ascending, linear to lanceolate, long, arising below mid length, central lobe apex rounded to obtuse, others acute.
± 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.
straight or slightly curved, 12–20 mm;
tube 13–15 mm;
beak exserted or ± equal to calyx, adaxially pale green, 8–11.5 mm;
abaxial lip green or red-violet, inconspicuous, slightly pouched, 1.5–2 mm, ca. 10–20% as long as beak;
teeth incurved, pink to pale yellow or deep green, 1 mm.
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, (10–)13–19 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–8(–11) mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 5–7 mm, ca. 25% of calyx length;
lobes linear to lanceolate, apex acute.
= 24.
Castilleja disticha
Castilleja tomentosa
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.)
In the United States, Castilleja tomentosa is known from a number of recently discovered populations in and near the southern Animas Valley, Hidalgo County, where it is found in Bouteloua gracilis and Sporobolus airoides grasslands. All known populations are small, and this species should be considered globally endangered. The only recorded Mexican station was the type locality from 1851 near Mabibi in adjacent northern Sonora. A. Eastwood (1909) believed C. tomentosa was a synonym of C. integra, but that species has mostly entire bracts, while the bracts of C. tomentosa are deeply lobed; the two also have different patterns of coloration and pubescence. T. I. Chuang annotated the holotype sheet of C. tomentosa as C. lanata, but C. tomentosa calyces have fairly deep lateral lobes, unlike the emarginate to very shallowly notched lobes of C. lanata.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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