Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja brevistyla |
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common paintbrush, common red paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush, great red paintbrush, scarlet Indian paintbrush, scarlet or common or giant red paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush |
short-style owl's-clover, shortstyle Indian paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.2–8(–10) dm; from a woody caudex (or slender rooting rhizomes in var. dixonii, var. miniata); with a taproot or with slender, branched roots from a rhizome. | Herbs, annual, (0.6–)1–4.3 dm; with fibrous roots. | ||||||||||||
Stems | few to many, erect to ascending, rarely proximally decumbent or creeping and rooting at nodes, usually branched, glabrous, glabrate, or hairy, hairs spreading to ± retrorse, short to long, soft to stiff, rarely stipitate-glandular. |
solitary or few, erect, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, short and long, soft and stiff, eglandular. |
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Leaves | green to purple, linear to lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, narrowly oblong, or ovate, (1.5–)3–8(–9.5) cm, thin and not fleshy or slightly to moderately thickened and slightly fleshy, margins plane, rarely wavy, flat to involute, whole leaf sometimes recurved downward, 0(–5)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes rounded; lobes ascending-spreading, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute. |
green to purplish, linear to linear-lanceolate, (0.8–)2–6(–8.7) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat, 3–5-lobed, apex acuminate; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, long, apex acuminate to rounded. |
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Inflorescences | 3–15(–22) × 1.5–5.5 cm, often bearing a thin, white, powdery exudate, especially on bract surfaces; bracts greenish, scarlet, red, red-orange, or pale orange throughout, sometimes pink, magenta, pink-purple, yellow, greenish yellow, white, or salmon throughout, or proximally greenish, distally colored as above, lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 0–5(–7)-lobed, central lobes sometimes distally apiculate; lobes erect, linear to lanceolate, oblong, or oblanceolate, short or medium length, arising near or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate, lateral ones rounded to acute or acuminate. |
5–25 (longer in fruit) × 1–2 cm; bracts proximally greenish to dull reddish brown, distally pink, lavender, magenta, purple-red, or white on apices, narrowly lanceolate, (3–)5-lobed; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate with slightly widened apices, medium length to long, arising near or below mid length, apex acute. |
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Pedicels | 0–5 mm. |
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Corollas | slightly curved, 20–48 mm; tube 12–26 mm; abaxial lip usually not exserted, though often visible in front calyx cleft, beak partially to fully exserted; beak adaxially green to yellow-green or whitish, (9–)14–25 mm; abaxial lip incurved or ascending, deep green or green, sometimes deep purple or yellowish, reduced, not inflated, visible in front cleft, 0.5–3.5 mm, 5–20% as long as beak (to ca. 33% as long as beak in some populations of var. miniata); teeth incurved or erect, green or white, 0.7–1.5 mm. |
straight, 15–30 mm; tube 14–23 mm, not expanded distally, majority of it exserted from calyx; beak straight, adaxially white or pink (drying purple), 4–6 mm, pubescent; abaxial lip ± inconspicuous, exserted, pouches 3, 2 mm wide, 1–1.5 mm deep, 3–5 mm, 50–70% as long as beak, white, yellow, or pink with large deep purple, red, or brown spot on each pouch at or extending below middle; teeth erect, white, yellow, or pink, 1–1.5 mm. |
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Calyces | colored as bracts, 15–38 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–24 mm, 35–70% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (1–)3–8(–12) mm, 5–30% of calyx length; lobes linear or narrowly lanceolate to narrowly triangular, apex acute to acuminate or obtuse. |
colored as bracts, sometimes proximally yellow, 15–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 7–9.5 mm, abaxial ca. 33% of calyx length, adaxial ca. 66% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 3–5.5 mm, 33% of calyx length; lobes ± linear, slender, all 4 similar, apex acute. |
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Filaments | glabrous. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
= 48. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja brevistyla |
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Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Arid grasslands in hilly country, sagebrush or alkaline flats. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 50–1200 m. (200–3900 ft.) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; nw Mexico
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CA
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Castilleja miniata is widely recognized as the common scarlet paintbrush. It is highly variable and has five levels of polyploidy. Nonetheless, it remains fairly well defined morphologically across its wide range. Native Americans use it medicinally. A probable hybrid with C. septentrionalis from southern Nevada was named C. ×porterae Cockerell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja brevistyla is endemic to the foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada and the southern reaches of the Inner South Coast Ranges, in Kern and adjacent counties. It often grows with other annuals, including C. attenuata, C. densiflora, and C. exserta. The similar C. attenuata has three-lobed bracts and leaves, while C. brevistyla has mostly five-lobed parts, and also differs in corolla structure and spotting. Hybrids between C. brevistyla and C. exserta are known from Kern County. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 627. | FNA vol. 17, p. 591. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Orthocarpus brevistylus | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | (Hoover) T. I. Chuang & Heckard: Syst. Bot. 16: 656. (1991) | ||||||||||||
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