Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja chrysantha |
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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 |
Wallowa paintbrush, yellow paintbrush, yellow Wallowa Indian paintbrush, yellowish or common Wallowa 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, perennial, (0.5–)1–2(–5) 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. |
few to many, erect or ascending, often decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, long, soft, mixed with dense, shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
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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 or purple-tinged, sometimes deep purple, broadly lanceolate, sometimes linear-lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 1.5–4.8 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat or involute, 0–3-lobed, apex acute; lobes ascending or spreading, linear to narrowly linear or narrowly lanceolate, short, apex acuminate. |
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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. |
3–17 × 1–3 cm; bracts greenish or pale yellow-green throughout, or proximally greenish or pale yellow-green, distally pale yellow to whitish, sometimes pink-purple, or pale, dull purplish, sometimes aging pink or yellow, often infused with light purple, rarely pink, ovate to broadly acute, (0–)3-lobed; lobes ascending, linear-lanceolate, oblong, or triangular, short, arising below mid length, apex acute to obtuse. |
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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, (16–)20–25 mm; tube 15–18 mm; beak slightly exserted, adaxially green to yellow, 5.5–8.5 mm; abaxial lip white, green and white, pink, or purple, ± prominent, appressed (proximally scarcely or not pouched), 3–5 mm, 67% as long as beak; teeth erect, white or pink with some purple or red, 1.5–2.5 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. |
proximally green, pale with green veins, purple-tinged green, or purple, distally pale yellow, white, or purplish, 12–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 8–12 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–3 mm, 5–15% of calyx length; lobes short-triangular, apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja chrysantha |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Oct. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Flat, mesic meadows, dry talus and ridges, montane to alpine. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 1100–2800 m. (3600–9200 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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OR
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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 chrysantha is endemic to the mountains of northeastern Oregon, and its patterns of variation need further study. Most plants in the Blue Mountains are taller, more erect, and tolerate lower elevation habitats than populations around the type locality in the Wallowa Mountains. Plants with purplish inflorescences and longer hairs were described as C. ownbeyana and tend to favor drier talus and ridges than plants like the type, found in flat, mesic, montane to subalpine meadows. Hybrids between C. chrysantha and C. fraterna occur in Wallowa County. In the Wallowa Mountains, a recurrent and variable hybrid form between C. chrysantha and C. rhexiifolia was described as C. wallowensis Pennell. (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. 596. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. ownbeyana | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | Greenman: Bot. Gaz. 48: 146. (1909) | ||||||||||||
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