Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja unalaschcensis |
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Lemmon's Indian paintbrush, Lemmon's paintbrush |
Alaska Indian paintbrush, coastal paintbrush, unalaska paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.8–2.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with slender, branching roots. | Herbs, perennial, 2–8 dm; from a short, stout, scaly, many-headed, woody caudex; with rhizomes or branching, 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 many, erect to ascending, unbranched or branched distally, glabrate proximally, hairy distally, hairs sparse, spreading to erect, long, soft, eglandular, rarely stipitate-glandular. |
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, sometimes red-purplish, lanceolate-linear to lanceolate, elliptic-ovate, or ovate, (1.2–)3.5–10 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, flat to slightly involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acuminate to acute; lobes ascending, lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate. |
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. |
3.5–18 × 2–6.5 cm; bracts proximally green, distally yellow, pale yellow, whitish, yellow-green, or pale orange, often aging reddish or pink, lanceolate, elliptic, ovate, oblanceolate, or oblong to narrowly obovate, (0–)3–5-lobed; lobes ascending, linear to oblong, short, arising above mid length, apex acute to 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 or slightly curved, 18–28 mm; tube 16–19 mm; beak partially to completely exserted, abaxial lip not exserted; beak adaxially green, 6–13 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, inconspicuous, 1–2 mm, ca. 20% as long as beak; teeth incurved, deep green or white, 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, 15–28 mm; abaxial cleft 12–16 mm, adaxial 8–11.5 mm, clefts 40–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 4–10 mm, 20–35% of calyx length; lobes oblong to lanceolate, apex acute to obtuse or rounded. |
Stigmas | greenish to deep bluish purple. |
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2n | = 24. |
= ca. 96. |
Castilleja lemmonii |
Castilleja unalaschcensis |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | Flowering May–Sep. |
Habitat | Moist to wet meadows and flats, shorelines, open conifer forests, subalpine and alpine, often over granite. | Meadows, dunes, thickets, upper margins of tidal flats, river flats, gravel bars, tundra, open forests, roadsides, coastal to alpine. |
Elevation | 1500–3700 m. [4900–12100 ft.] | 0–2100 m. [0–6900 ft.] |
Distribution |
CA; NV
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AK; BC; YT; Asia (Russian Far East)
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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 unalaschcensis is a characteristic meadow species across much of the southern Alaskan coast, including the Aleutian Islands, as well as on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) and the mainland of western British Columbia and southern Yukon. It is common in the coastal littoral zone and ascends to lower alpine meadow communities. Morphologically, it appears to be a sister species to C. septentrionalis of the Rocky Mountains and boreal sites in eastern North America. A weakly differentiated interior form was described as subsp. transnivalis Pennell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 620. | FNA vol. 17, p. 663. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. culbertsonii | C. pallida var. unalaschcensis |
Name authority | A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 297. (1878) — (as Castilleia lemmoni) | (Chamisso & Schlechtendal) Malte: Rhodora 36: 187. (1934) — (as unalaschkensis) |
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