Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja chrymactis |
|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
common paintbrush, common red paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush, great red paintbrush, scarlet Indian paintbrush, scarlet or common or giant red paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush |
green Indian paintbrush, green paintbrush |
|||||||||||||
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, perennial, 2.8–6.6 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | ||||||||||||
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. |
several to many, erect to ascending, unbranched or branched, sometimes with short, leafy axillary shoots, glabrous or hairs sparse proximally, distally spreading-erect, long, soft, eglandular, mixed with shorter ones. |
||||||||||||
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 or purple-tinged, sometimes deep purple, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or ovate, (1.5–)5–11.7 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, flat or involute, 0–3(–5)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes rounded; lobes erect or ascending, linear, apex acute or acuminate. |
||||||||||||
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. |
3.5–18 × 3–7.5 cm; bracts proximally pale green to dull purplish, distally bright red or scarlet to yellow, orange, yellow-orange, and salmon, sometimes tricolored with central band of deeper purple or deeper shade of the far-distal color, broadly lanceolate, oblong, elliptic, or oblong, 0–3(–9)-lobed; lobes ascending, lanceolate, triangular, or oblong, short, arising at or above mid length, central lobe apex rounded, lateral ones acute to obtuse. |
||||||||||||
Pedicels | 0–5 mm. |
|||||||||||||
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 to slightly curved, 26–43 mm; tube 16–24 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green to yellow, 9–19 mm; abaxial lip whitish or dark green, reduced, not exserted, sometimes visible through front calyx cleft, 1.5–2 mm, 20% as long as beak, glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs spreading; teeth reduced, incurved, deep green, 0.5–1 mm. |
||||||||||||
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 more deeply pigmented and contrasting with bract coloration, 24–31 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 12–19 mm, 45–65% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 7–11 mm, 25–32% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate, narrowly triangular, or almost oblong, apex acute, sometimes obtuse or acuminate. |
||||||||||||
2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
|||||||||||||
Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja chrymactis |
|||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering (Jan–)Feb–Sep(–Oct). | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Glacial outwash plains, river flats, moist or wet openings, beach meadows, roadsides. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–20 m. (0–100 ft.) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; nw Mexico
|
AK |
||||||||||||
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 chrymactis is restricted to the coast of southeastern Alaska, from Glacier Bay to Yakutat. In some respects, it resembles a hybrid swarm between C. miniata and C. unalaschcensis. If C. chrymactis originated as a hybrid, at present it has formed a number of populations and has a stable morphology that differs from both putative parents, especially in calyx structure. Reports of its introduction to Point Reyes, California (T. I. Chuang and L. R. Heckard 1993b), are based on C. leschkeana, a distinctive species known only from two records near the type locality and presumed to be extinct. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 627. | FNA vol. 17, p. 596. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 86: 539. (1934) | ||||||||||||
Web links |
|