Castilleja mendocinensis |
Castilleja uliginosa |
|
---|---|---|
Mendocino coast Indian paintbrush, Mendocino coast paintbrush |
Pitkin Marsh Indian paintbrush, Pitkin Marsh paintbrush |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.7–6.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 3–5 dm; from a woody caudex; rhizomatous. |
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. |
several, decumbent proximally and sometimes becoming weakly rhizomatous, becoming ascending to erect, unbranched or often branched proximally, hairs spreading, short and long, soft, mixed eglandular and stipitate-glandular. |
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, lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 3–5 cm, much reduced distally, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, flat, 0-lobed, apex acute to rounded. |
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. |
10–30 × 3–4 cm; bracts pale yellow to cream throughout, or proximally pale greenish near base, distally pale yellow to cream, broadly lanceolate, 3-lobed; lobes ascending, narrowly lanceolate, long, arising near mid length, apex narrowly acute or acuminate. |
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. |
slightly curved, 22–30 mm; tube 11–15 mm; beak partly exserted, adaxially whitish, yellowish, or greenish, 10–15 mm; abaxial lip green, small, protuberant, 3 mm, ca. 20% as long as beak; teeth erect to incurved, green, to 1 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. |
colored as bracts, 20–25 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 7–14 mm, ca. 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 5–6 mm, ca. 33% of calyx length; lobes linear, apex acute, ciliate. |
2n | = 72. |
|
Castilleja mendocinensis |
Castilleja uliginosa |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Aug. | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Coastal scrub, headlands, sea bluffs, over sandstone or serpentine. | Margins of wet meadows, marshes, and wet thickets. |
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | 40–60 m. (100–200 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; OR
|
CA |
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 uliginosa is endemic to Pitkin Marsh in Sonoma County. It differs from C. miniata by its uniformly pale yellow inflorescences and pubescent stems, as well as by its disjunct, low-elevation habitat. Much of its available habitat was destroyed by development, and it is apparently now extirpated from the wild. It survives in the form of tissue clones from the last wild plant, backcrossed with C. miniata by L. R. Heckard in the 1980s and maintained since then in the greenhouses at the University of California at Berkeley. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 626. | FNA vol. 17, p. 662. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. latifolia subsp. mendocinensis | |
Name authority | (Eastwood) Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 99: 184. (1947) | Eastwood: Leafl. W. Bot. 3: 117. (1942) |
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