Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja grisea |
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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 |
San Clemente Island Indian paintbrush, San Clemente Island 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. | Subshrubs or shrubs, perennial, 4–6(–10) dm, to 20 dm wide; from a woody caudex; with thick, woody 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. |
many, spreading and ascending, much-branched, with short, leafy axillary shoots, proximal stems 1+ cm wide, hairs dense, spreading, matted, white, medium length, soft, stellate, sometimes mixed with short stipitate-glandular ones especially near inflorescence, partially 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. |
ash gray, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–6.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane or slightly wavy, involute, 0–7-lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces almost obscured by hairs, at least when young; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to narrowly oblong, apex acute to 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–)7.5–11.5 × 1.5–3.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally ± pale yellow, proximals sometimes greenish throughout, linear to narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, (3–)5–7-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly oblong, long, proximal lobes arising below mid length, apex obtuse to 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. |
curved in proximal 1/3, 15–25 mm; tube 11 mm; abaxial lip not exserted, sometimes visible in abaxial cleft, beak exserted; beak adaxially green or dull yellow, 7–9 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, 1–2 mm, less than 25% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 0.7–1 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, 10–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5.5–7 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0–1 mm, 0–8% of calyx length; lobes oblong, apex truncate to rounded or obtuse, rarely emarginate, inner surface glandular. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja grisea |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Jun. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Coastal terraces and slopes, cliffs and canyon walls, coastal sage scrub. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 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 grisea is endemic to a small portion of San Clemente Island in Los Angeles County, which is managed by the U.S. Navy. It was one of the first plants listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of the United States, and its near extinction was due to grazing by feral goats. Plants responded well when the goats were removed, spreading from their last refuge on inaccessible cliffs onto gentle terrain at the southern end of the island, near the type locality, and are now locally fairly common. Ungrazed old shrubs can reach 1 m in height and 2 m in breadth and often have a thick woody trunk. The stellate pubescence is unusual in Castilleja. Castilleja grisea is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (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. 611. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. hololeuca subsp. grisea | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | Dunkle: Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 42: 31. (1943) | ||||||||||||
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