Castilleja mendocinensis |
Castilleja rubicundula |
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Mendocino coast Indian paintbrush, Mendocino coast paintbrush |
cream sacs |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.7–6.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, annual, 0.6–6 dm; with a taproot or branched root system. | ||||
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. |
solitary, erect, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, short, soft, often mixed with stipitate-glandular ones. |
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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 purple-tinged or dark red-brown, linear-lanceolate or distal lanceolate, 2–8(–9) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat to slightly curved up, 0–7-lobed, apex acute to acuminate; lobes widely spreading or ascending-spreading, linear, apex acute. |
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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. |
2.5–24 × 3–4 cm; bracts green throughout, lanceolate to ovate, 5–9-lobed; lobes ascending, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, medium length, arising near mid length, apex acute to acuminate. |
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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, (15–)20–28 mm; tube 8–24 mm; abaxial lip, beak, and proximal part of corolla tube exserted; beak adaxially white, rarely very pale yellow or pale pink-purple, 5–7 mm, inconspicuously puberulent; abaxial lip white, fading to pink to pink-purple, or yellow, fading to white, rarely then to pink or pink-purple, both forms often with purple or red dots at base, inflated, prominent, pouches 3, 8–10 mm wide, 4–6 mm deep, 4–6 mm, 80–100% as long as beak; teeth erect, white or yellow, 0.5 mm. |
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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. |
green, 8–14 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 3–6 mm, 30–50% of calyx length, all 4 clefts subequal; lobes linear, apex acuminate to acute. |
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Stigmas | ± exserted, as long as or slightly longer than beak and visible from abaxial side. |
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2n | = 72. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja mendocinensis |
Castilleja rubicundula |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Aug. | |||||
Habitat | Coastal scrub, headlands, sea bluffs, over sandstone or serpentine. | |||||
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
CA; OR
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CA; OR
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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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Castilleja rubicundula is separated into two varieties on the basis of flower color, as well as subtle differences in the pouching of the abaxial corolla lip. The ranges of the two varieties are broadly overlapping, but they never grow in the same location. Few intermediate forms have been recorded, though a very unusual population system exists in Santa Clara County, within which virtually all plants exhibit a tricolored corolla sequence, with yellow flowers aging to white and then pink or pink-purple, with all three colors visible on mature inflorescences. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 626. | FNA vol. 17, p. 652. | ||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | C. latifolia subsp. mendocinensis | Orthocarpus rubicundulus | ||||
Name authority | (Eastwood) Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 99: 184. (1947) | (Jepson) T. I. Chuang & Heckard: Syst. Bot. 16: 658. (1991) | ||||
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