Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja citrina |
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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 |
lemon 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, 1.5–3.5 dm; from a slender, woody caudex; with a taproot or stout, branched 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. |
few to many, erect to ascending, unbranched or branched, hairs appressed to ± ascending, matted, long, soft, mixed with short-glandular ones, denser distally, sometimes obscuring surface. |
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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, sometimes brown, linear to linear-lanceolate, 3–7 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 3–7-lobed, apex acute to rounded; lateral lobes spreading, narrowly linear, 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. |
(3.5–)8–20 × 2–5.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally bright yellow, sometimes pale yellow to pale orange, sometimes aging white to pink, narrowly to broadly lanceolate or oblong, 3–5(–7)-lobed; lobes spreading to ascending, linear, long, arising at or below mid length, apex obtuse to rounded. |
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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 but curved at tip, 30–41 mm; tube 21–26 mm; beak slightly to long-exserted, adaxially green to yellowish, sometimes aging pinkish, 10–15 mm; abaxial lip white or yellow, sometimes partly green, darkening with age, only slightly inflated, exserted from abaxial cleft, 3–7 mm, ca. 50% as long as beak; teeth prominent, petaloid, spreading, yellow, 2.5–6 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. |
green, pale green, or whitish, lobes colored as bracts, 12–18 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 8–15 mm, 60–75% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2.5–3 mm, 20% of calyx length; lobes linear to very narrowly triangular (equilaterally triangular if very short), apex obtuse to rounded. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja citrina |
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Phenology | Flowering (Mar–)Apr–May. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Calcareous prairies, sandy fields, gravelly limestone hillsides, limestone outcrops, mesquite, juniper, oak-juniper, and post oak woodlands, roadsides. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 300–800 m. (1000–2600 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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KS; OK; TX
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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.) |
Although the range of Castilleja citrina overlaps the range of its close relatives, C. lindheimeri and C. purpurea, in central Texas, C. citrina extends considerably farther to the west and northwest of the others (G. L. Nesom and J. M. Egger 2014). The inflorescences of C. citrina are mostly pale to bright lemon yellow or occasionally brassy yellow. The color and usually more elongate abaxial corolla lip separate it from C. lindheimeri and C. purpurea. Castilleja citrina is similar to some color forms of C. sessiliflora, but the more conspicuously curved corolla of C. sessiliflora is usually exserted far above the calyx and is often white to pale pink, rather than yellow. (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. 597. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. purpurea var. citrina | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | Pennell: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 73: 532. (1922) | ||||||||||||
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