Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja mexicana |
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Lemmon's Indian paintbrush, Lemmon's paintbrush |
Mexican Indian paintbrush, Mexican paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.8–2.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with slender, branching roots. | Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 0.6–3 dm; from a woody caudex; with a slender 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, 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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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 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. |
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. |
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. |
Stigmas | greenish to deep bluish purple. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja mexicana |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | Flowering Feb–Oct. |
Habitat | Moist to wet meadows and flats, shorelines, open conifer forests, subalpine and alpine, often over granite. | Dry rocky slopes, grasslands, pinyon-juniper stands. |
Elevation | 1500–3700 m. [4900–12100 ft.] | 1200–2100 m. [3900–6900 ft.] |
Distribution |
CA; NV
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TX; Mexico (Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas)
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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 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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 620. | FNA vol. 17, p. 626. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. culbertsonii | Orthocarpus mexicanus, C. tortifolia |
Name authority | A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 297. (1878) — (as Castilleia lemmoni) | (Hemsley) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 21: 404. (1886) — (as Castilleia) |
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