Castilleja hispida |
Castilleja mexicana |
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harsh Indian paintbrush, harsh paintbrush, hispid or harsh or bristly paintbrush |
Mexican Indian paintbrush, Mexican paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.3–5(–6) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 0.6–3 dm; from a woody caudex; with a slender taproot. | ||||
Stems | few to many, erect or ascending, unbranched, sometimes with inconspicuous, short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs spreading to erect, long, soft to stiff, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
solitary or few, erect to erect-ascending, sometimes slightly curved at base, branched at base or unbranched, hairs spreading, long, stiff to soft, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
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Leaves | green, sometimes purple-tinged, margins sometimes red-brown, linear or narrowly to broadly lanceolate to narrowly oblong, oblanceolate, or ovate, 1–8.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane or wavy, involute or flat, (0–)3–5(–7)-lobed, apex acute to rounded or acuminate; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, much narrower than mid blade, apex acute to rounded. |
brown or purplish, sometimes green, linear to narrowly oblong, 1–5 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, mostly involute, to flat, 3–5-lobed, apex acute; lobes spreading, linear, apex acute to obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | 3–16(–30 in fruit) × 2–5 cm; bracts proximally greenish to dull reddish purple, distally red to orange or yellow, sometimes crimson, scarlet, orange-red, red-orange, or burnt orange, often becoming paler and/or duller with age, lanceolate to oblong, ovate, or obovate, 3–5(–11)-lobed; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to oblong or narrowly lanceolate, medium length or long, arising at or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse to rounded or truncate, sometimes emarginate, truncate, or acute, lateral ones acute to obtuse. |
2–17 × 1.5–6.5 cm; bracts greenish throughout, narrowly lanceolate (ovate in outline), 3–5(–7)-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly oblong, long, arising from 1/3–2/3 blade length, wavy-margined, apex rounded or obtuse to acute. |
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Corollas | slightly curved, 17–38 mm; tube 12–18 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green, sometimes yellowish, rarely red-brown, 9–20 mm; abaxial lip ascending, deep green, reduced, curved, 0.5–3 mm, to 10–33% length of beak; teeth incurved, reduced, green, 0.5–1.2 mm. |
straight proximally, conspicuously decurved distally, 35–60 mm; tube 26–46 mm; abaxial lip, beak, and majority of tube exserted; beak yellow to yellowish green, sometimes purplish tipped or drying pinkish, 9–15 mm; abaxial lip light yellow to whitish, prominent, not inflated, 4–8 mm, 50–75% as long as beak; teeth spreading-ascending, yellowish, 3–6 mm. |
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Calyces | colored as bracts, sometimes with a yellow band proximal to red to orange apices, or ca. 1/2 yellowish and 1/2 reddish, 12–35 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 7–12 mm, 33–65% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2–7 mm, 15–30% of calyx length; lobes triangular, linear, or oblong to lanceolate, apex acute or obtuse to rounded. |
proximally brownish green, purplish, or green, lobes tipped with same color as bracts, 18–28 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–14 mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1.5–6 mm, 8–20% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate to narrowly triangular, abaxials wider than adaxials, apex acute. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 96. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja hispida |
Castilleja mexicana |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Oct. | |||||
Habitat | Dry rocky slopes, grasslands, pinyon-juniper stands. | |||||
Elevation | 1200–2100 m. (3900–6900 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC
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TX; Mexico (Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas)
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Castilleja hispida is likely related to C. chromosa, which replaces it geographically to the southeast. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja mexicana occurs in the northern third of Mexico and reaches the flora area only in southwestern Texas. Its conspicuous corollas can be either yellow or, less commonly, white. In both cases, the flowers turn soft pink-purple with age. Texas populations of this species are yellow flowered, and the white-flowered morph appears to occur only in northeastern Mexico. There is some indication of additional morphological differences between these color morphs that may justify varietal segregation. Castilleja mexicana is sometimes confused with the closely related C. sessiliflora, due to their conspicuous, distally curved, usually strongly exserted corollas, but the two species remain distinct. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 612. | FNA vol. 17, p. 626. | ||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Orthocarpus mexicanus, C. tortifolia | |||||
Name authority | Bentham: in W. J. Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 105. (1838) | (Hemsley) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 21: 404. (1886) — (as Castilleia) | ||||
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