Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja arachnoidea |
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Lemmon's Indian paintbrush, Lemmon's paintbrush |
cobwebby Indian paintbrush, cobwebby paintbrush, cotton paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.8–2.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with slender, branching roots. | Herbs, perennial, 0.6–2(–3) dm; from branched, sometimes elongate, creeping basal stems; with a taproot. |
Stems | few to many, decumbent-based to erect, unbranched except for short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs sparse, spreading, medium length to long, soft and dense, short to medium length, stipitate-glandular. |
solitary or few to many, decumbent-ascending, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs dense, reflexed-spreading, matted, long, soft, unbranched, eglandular, white-woolly. |
Leaves | green or gray-green to purple (sometimes different on stems of same plant), linear-lanceolate, distal sometimes broadly lanceolate, 0.5–4 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acute to acuminate; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse. |
green to purple or steel gray, lanceolate-linear or narrowly lanceolate, (1–)2–4(–6) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 3(–5)-lobed, apex acute; lobes spreading, linear to lanceolate, apex acute to rounded. |
Inflorescences | 2–12 × 1–3 cm; bracts greenish to dull purplish or brownish throughout, or proximally greenish to dull purplish, distally pink to purple or magenta, rarely white, ovate, broadly lanceolate, or oblong, (0–)3–5-lobed; lobes ascending to erect, lanceolate, medium length, arising above mid length, apex acute to rounded. |
erect to ascending, 3–12 × 1–2.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish to dull reddish brown, rarely dull red or dull orange, distally dull red, deep rusty red, or yellow to pale yellow, sometimes deep pink, dull rose, pale salmon, or dull light orange, rarely green, dull reddish, or dull orange throughout, aging browner and/or more orange, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate to obovate, (0–)3–5-lobed; lobes usually ascending, linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or spatulate, long, arising near or below mid length, central lobe apex rounded to truncate, others obtuse to rounded. |
Corollas | slightly curved, 16–21 mm; tube 10–16 mm; abaxial lip sometimes partly exserted, beak usually exserted; beak adaxially green, 6–7 mm, margins red; abaxial lip greenish, inflated, pouches 3, shallow, central pouch shallowly grooved, visible through front cleft, 3–4 mm, 60% as long as beak; teeth erect, violet-purple or pink, 1–2.5 mm. |
straight or ± curved, 12–20 mm; tube 9–15 mm; beak subequal to calyx or slightly exserted, adaxially green or yellow-green, (2–)3–5 mm, ± densely puberulent, hairs often crisped; abaxial lip yellow, greenish, pink, or red-violet, moderately conspicuous, exserted to barely included in calyx; pouches shallow, prominent, 2–4 mm, ca. 100% as long as beak; teeth erect, red, pink, or pale yellow, 1 mm. |
Calyces | proximally brown or dull magenta, sometimes green, distally colored as bracts, 12.5–18 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5.5–10.5 mm, 40–65% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–2 mm, 5–15% of calyx length; lobes oblong, apex rounded. |
colored as bracts, proximal part sometimes paler, (10–)12–19 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–8(–10) mm, 33–50% of calyx length, all 4 clefts subequal; lobes linear to lanceolate, apex acute. |
Stigmas | greenish to deep bluish purple. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja arachnoidea |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | Flowering (May–)Jun–Aug(–Sep). |
Habitat | Moist to wet meadows and flats, shorelines, open conifer forests, subalpine and alpine, often over granite. | Pumice flats, sandy, gravelly, or rocky slopes, ridges and open summits. |
Elevation | 1500–3700 m. [4900–12100 ft.] | 1300–3300 m. [4300–10800 ft.] |
Distribution |
CA; NV
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CA; NV; OR
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Discussion | As delimited here, Castilleja lemmonii is endemic to the highlands of the Sierra Nevada in California and in adjacent Washoe County, Nevada. It differs from C. lassenensis, a plant of volcanic highlands around Mt. Lassen, which has consistently white corollas. Corollas are usually pink to purplish in C. lemmonii. Castilleja lemmonii also tends to have somewhat shorter lateral calyx clefts, though the two species overlap slightly in this character. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja arachnoidea is a remarkably variable species in form and color, but inflorescence colors are often uniform within a population. It is sometimes confused with C. schizotricha, but the two differ in stature, lobing of the leaves and bracts, bract coloration, and inflation of the abaxial lip. They are easily separated by the simple hairs and pale yellow to brick red inflorescences of C. arachnoidea, compared to the pink-purple to deep purple inflorescences and branched hairs of C. schizotricha. The names Castilleja eastwoodiana and C. filifolia represent yellow color forms of C. arachnoidea. A race on the pumice plains of Mt. Shasta in the Cascade Range in California is distinctive. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 620. | FNA vol. 17, p. 590. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. culbertsonii | C. arachnoidea subsp. shastensis, C. eastwoodiana, C. filifolia, C. payneae, C. pumicicola |
Name authority | A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 297. (1878) — (as Castilleia lemmoni) | Greenman: Bot. Gaz. 53: 510. (1912) |
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