Castilleja mendocinensis |
Castilleja elegans |
|
---|---|---|
Mendocino coast Indian paintbrush, Mendocino coast paintbrush |
elegant Indian paintbrush, elegant paintbrush |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.7–6.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 0.5–3 dm; from a woody caudex; with a slender taproot. |
Stems | few to many, decumbent to ascending, much-branched, with leafy axillary shoots, villous, hairs spreading, long, stiff to soft, eglandular, mixed with short-glandular ones. |
few to several, ascending to erect, or slightly decumbent at base, unbranched, hairy, sometimes glabrate near base, hairs erect-ascending, whitish or yellowish, long, soft, eglandular, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones, especially distally. |
Leaves | gray-green becoming ± purple, or green, ± cup-shaped, oblong to narrowly elliptic or suborbicular, 0.5–2(–5) cm, ± fleshy, cupulate throughout, sometimes obscurely so on distal portion of stem, margins plane, flat to involute, 0–3-lobed, apex rounded; lobes ascending, oblong to rounded, apex truncate or rounded, sometimes ± acute. |
green to sometimes purple-tinged, lanceolate to narrowly oblong, (1.2–)2–6(–9) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, flat to ± involute, 0-lobed, sometimes 3-lobed distally, immediately below inflorescence, apex acuminate to caudate; lobes ascending to erect, linear to lanceolate, lateral lobes narrower than central, apex acuminate. |
Inflorescences | 5–23 × 1.5–3.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally bright red or red-orange, sometimes orange, oblong, ovate, or widely cuneate to widely obovate to suborbiculate, sometimes cup-shaped, 0–3-lobed, sometimes with 3 additional shallow teeth at tip of central lobe; lobes erect, oblong to broadly triangular, short, arising above mid length, apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, lateral ones sometimes acute. |
1.5–9 × 1.5–3 cm; bracts purple to pink-purple or reddish purple throughout, sometimes proximally purple to pink-purple or reddish purple, distally whitish or pale pink, oblong to lanceolate or narrowly ovate, (0–)3–7-lobed; lobes spreading-ascending, linear-lanceolate, narrow, short or long, arising near or above mid length, center lobe apex rounded to sometimes acute, lateral ones acute. |
Corollas | straight or slightly curved, 28–45 mm; tube 18–20 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green or yellow-green, 15–25 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, visible in front cleft, 1–1.5 mm, 10% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 0.5–1 mm. |
straight, 18–28 mm; tube 17–20 mm; abaxial lip generally visible between calyx lobes, sometimes exserted above them, beak exserted; beak adaxially green, yellowish green, or purplish green, 4–8 mm; abaxial lip purple or magenta, medium sized, often visible through or above abaxial cleft, pouches 3, slightly inflated, 3–5.5 mm, 50+% as long as beak; teeth ascending, purple or magenta, 1–1.5 mm. |
Calyces | colored as bracts, often with a yellow central band, 20–31 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 8–12 mm, ca. 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2–6 mm, 10–15% of calyx length; lobes oblong to broadly or narrowly triangular, apex obtuse or rounded, sometimes acute. |
yellow to yellow-green, rarely purplish to dull red throughout, 19–25 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 10–17 mm, 60–70% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (2–)5–8 mm, 20–25% of calyx length; lobes narrowly oblong to lanceolate, apex rounded or obtuse, sometimes acute. |
2n | = 72. |
= 24. |
Castilleja mendocinensis |
Castilleja elegans |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Aug. | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Coastal scrub, headlands, sea bluffs, over sandstone or serpentine. | Meadows, tundra, fell fields, moraines, talus, rocky slopes, shrub thickets, gravel bars, lakeshores. |
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | 0–2000 m. (0–6600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; OR
|
AK; MB; NT; NU; QC; YT; e Asia (Russian Far East) |
Discussion | Castilleja mendocinensis is a coastal plant from Mendocino County, California, northward to Curry County, Oregon. Its close relative, C. latifolia, occurs in similar habitats south of San Francisco Bay. There is one known population in Oregon, and a number of California localities are threatened by coastal development. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja elegans is a characteristic species of the arctic and arctic-alpine regions. Its eastern and western limits are poorly understood, due to confusion with the similar species C. raupii to the east and south, and with C. rubra (Drobow) Rebristaya in eastern Asia. All three are part of a morphologically variable complex of recently evolved and poorly differentiated entities informally known as the C. pallida complex, after the first-described member of the group. Some reports of C. elegans in eastern Canada are here referred to C. septentrionalis. A recent collection of C. elegans from the northern Canadian Rocky Mountains is apparently disjunct, though it may also suggest its wider presence in Alberta. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 626. | FNA vol. 17, p. 604. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. latifolia subsp. mendocinensis | C. pallida subsp. elegans |
Name authority | (Eastwood) Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 99: 184. (1947) | Malte: Rhodora 36: 187. (1934) |
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