Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja mollis |
|
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Lemmon's Indian paintbrush, Lemmon's paintbrush |
soft leaf Indian paintbrush, soft-leaf paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.8–2.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with slender, branching roots. | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, 3–4 dm; from a woody caudex; with woody roots. |
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. |
few to several, ± prostrate, sometimes ascending, much-branched, with dense, matlike growth form, often with short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs dense, tangled, short to long, fairly stiff, branched, sometimes glandular, 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 deep purple, narrowly elliptic to oblong, ovate, or obovate, 1–3 cm, ± fleshy, margins plane or ± wavy, flat, 0-lobed, apex rounded, rarely acute. |
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. |
usually erect, 2.5–8 × 1.5–4 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally pale to bright yellow, sometimes brownish orange, sometimes with brownish orange medial band, oblong, elliptic, or obovate, ± cup-shaped, ± fleshy, 0–3-lobed; lobes erect, oblong, short, arising near tip, central lobe apex rounded to truncate, sometimes crenate or with obtuse teeth, lateral ones obtuse. |
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, 17–26 mm; tube 12–13 mm; beak often slightly exserted, adaxially green to yellow-green, 11–13 mm; abaxial lip green, reduced, 1.5–3.5 mm, 10–20% as long as beak; teeth incurved, reduced, green, 0.5–1 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, lacking orange central band, 16–23 mm; abaxial clefts 9.5–14 mm, adaxial 8 mm, abaxial 50–67% of calyx length, adaxial 35–45% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 4.5–5 mm, 20–25% of calyx length; lobes oblong to triangular, abaxials sometimes wider than adaxials, apex acute to rounded, inner surface glabrous. |
Stigmas | greenish to deep bluish purple. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja mollis |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | Flowering Apr–Aug. |
Habitat | Moist to wet meadows and flats, shorelines, open conifer forests, subalpine and alpine, often over granite. | Sandy openings in coastal scrub, thin sandy soils over limestone terraces, north- or northwest-facing sandy bluffs, dunes. |
Elevation | 1500–3700 m. [4900–12100 ft.] | 0–100 m. [0–300 ft.] |
Distribution |
CA; NV
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CA
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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 mollis is federally listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of the United States. It is endemic to the coastal terraces of the northern portion of Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara County, in the northern Channel Islands of southern California. It is recorded historically from San Miguel Island. Much of the available low-elevation habitat on Santa Rosa Island was degraded by trampling and grazing of introduced ungulates, which also resulted in the apparent loss of a natural population on the western end of San Miguel Island, last seen in the 1930s and now believed extirpated. Reports of C. mollis from the Oso Flaco Lake area of the mainland, in San Luis Obispo County, are based on populations of C. affinis var. contentiosa. Castilleja mollis is most closely related to C. latifolia of the central California coast and a sister species to the north, C. mendocinensis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 620. | FNA vol. 17, p. 632. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. culbertsonii | |
Name authority | A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 297. (1878) — (as Castilleia lemmoni) | Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 99: 185. (1947) |
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