Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja foliolosa |
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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 |
felt paintbrush, Texas Indian paintbrush, Texas paintbrush, woolly Indian paintbrush, woolly 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 or subshrubs, sometimes shrubs, perennial, 1.2–6 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. |
many, ascending, white or grayish due to hairs branched, much-branched proximally, unbranched to sometimes branched on distal 1/2, also usually with short axillary branches, base often shrubby and with marcescent leaves of previous year, hairs dense, appressed to spreading, medium length, soft, much-branched, eglandular, white-woolly, 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. |
whitish or grayish, linear to narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 0.9–5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 0–3-lobed, apex obtuse to rounded; lobes divergent, spreading, linear, apex acuminate to acute. |
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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. |
2.5–20 × 1.5–3 cm; bracts proximally green to dull pale purplish, distally red, scarlet, rose, yellow, orange, or cream, sometimes pink or white, lanceolate to oblanceolate, (0–)3–5-lobed; lobes spreading, or distal ones erect, often oblanceolate, if 5-lobed, distal lobes usually very shallow, long or distal short, proximal bracts arising below mid length, distal ones arising near apex, apex rounded to truncate. |
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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 or slightly curved, 16–27 mm; tube (8–)10–12(–14) mm; beak exserted or partially so, adaxially green, (7–)8.5–14 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, 1–3 mm, 20–33% as long as beak; teeth incurved, reduced, green, 0.5 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, apices colored as bracts, 14–20(–22) mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 3.5–7(–9) mm, 33–40% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0(–1) mm, 0(–7)% of calyx length; lobes broadly triangular, apex of lobes and segments broadly rounded to truncate, segments, if present, obtuse. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja foliolosa |
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Phenology | Flowering Jan–Jul. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Chaparral, dry rocky slopes, coastal scrub, open forests. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–1900 m. (0–6200 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; Mexico (Baja California)
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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 foliolosa inhabits chaparral from northern California southward to northern Baja California, west of the Sierra Nevada crest. The inflorescence is usually red or red-orange but can vary to white, yellow, pink, or purple. It is present on Santa Catalina Island in the southern Channel Islands, Los Angeles County, but is replaced in the northern Channel Islands by C. hololeuca, a related shrubby species. Castilleja foliolosa hybridizes with C. martini var. martini in San Diego 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. 608. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | ||||||||||||
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