Castilleja lutescens
Castilleja lacera
stiff yellow Indian paintbrush, stiff yellow paintbrush, yellow paintbrush, yellowish paintbrush
cut-leaf owl's clover, cut-leaf paintbrush, cutleaf Indian paintbrush, foothill owl's clover
few to several, erect or ascending, sometimes decumbent at base, unbranched or branched, hairs spreading to retrorse, short, scabrid below inflorescence, sometimes becoming medium length to long, soft to stiff, mixed with short stipitate-glandular ones in inflorescence.
solitary, erect, unbranched or branched, hairs spreading, long, soft, scattered among more numerous, medium length, stipitate-glandular ones.
green, sometimes purplish, linear to lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 1–8.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat or involute lengthwise, 0(–5)-lobed, apex acute;
lobes ascending, linear, central one sometimes shallowly toothed, apex acute to obtuse.
green or purplish, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat, 0–5(–7)-lobed, apex acuminate;
lobes spreading to ascending, linear, apex acuminate to acute.
3–14 × 1.5–3 cm;
bracts greenish throughout, or proximally greenish, distally pale to bright yellow or whitish, rarely pale orangish, lanceolate to oblong, (0–)3–7-lobed;
lobes ascending to erect, linear to lanceolate or narrowly oblong, medium length, arising at or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse to rounded, lateral ones acute.
(1.5–)3–14 × 2–3 cm;
bracts green throughout, sometimes proximally green, distally white on apices, lanceolate to ovate, 3–7-lobed;
lobes spreading to ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, long, arising below mid length, apex obtuse to acute.
straight or slightly curved, 21–27 mm;
tube 14–16 mm;
beak partly exserted, adaxially green, 7–12 mm;
abaxial lip ascending, green, reduced, 2–4 mm, 25–50% as long as beak;
teeth erect or incurved, sometimes spreading, green or white, 0.7–2.5 mm.
straight, 10–22 mm;
tube 8–15 mm;
abaxial lip and beak exserted;
beak adaxially yellow to greenish, 3–6 mm, densely puberulent;
abaxial lip yellow with purple dots at base, inflated, pouches 3, central pouch slightly 2-lobed, pouches 4–8 mm wide, 3–6 mm deep, side pouches curving up a little at tip, 2–5 mm, 75–95% as long as beak;
teeth erect, white or yellow, 0.5–2 mm.
colored as bracts, 15–25 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–13 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1–7 mm, 15% of calyx length;
lobes narrowly triangular to linear, apex acute.
light green, lobes green, 7–13 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 3.5–8 mm, 50–67% of calyx length, lateral 2.5–5 mm, ca. 40% of calyx length;
lobes narrowly to broadly lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate.
equal to or slightly exserted from beak.
= 48, 96.
= 22, 24.
Castilleja lutescens
Castilleja lacera
Castilleja lutescens is found east of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington and ranges east to western Montana and the adjacent interior of western Canada. Its inflorescences vary in color from entirely greenish to white or yellowish, and the stature of the plants is also variable, trending from moderate and compact in grasslands to taller in more forested situations. In the Blue Mountains of Garfield County, Washington, occasional hybrids form between C. lutescens and C. hispida var. acuta, which often both occur in the same vicinity.
L. R. Heckard (1968) reported a chromosome count of ca. 2n = 120 from a population in Montana.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Castilleja lacera is found in a wide range of elevations in the central and northern Sierra Nevada region and in the Siskiyou Mountains region of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. Reports from the Coast Ranges north of the San Francisco Bay region and south of the Siskiyou region in western California are referable to other yellow-flowered annuals, including C. ambigua, C. rubicundula var. lithospermoides, Triphysaria eriantha subsp. eriantha, and T. versicolor subsp. faucibarbata. Although most similar to C. rubicundula, C. lacera is somewhat smaller in stature and flower size. It is also easily confused with yellow-flowered populations of C. tenuis, which has smaller flowers and an included stigma. Two chromosome numbers are known for this species, the more northern populations being diploid, and those to the south having an apparently aneuploid count of 2n = 22, which is unique in the genus.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
