Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja kraliana |
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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 |
Cahaba Indian paintbrush, Kral's 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, annual or biennial, (1.6–)2–4(–4.9) dm; with fibrous 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. |
solitary or few, erect, from a basal rosette that usually persists into anthesis, unbranched or few-branched from mid stem, glabrate proximally, hairy distally, hairs moderately dense, spreading, long, soft, mixed with short 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. |
basal forming a persistent rosette, often withered at anthesis, usually suffused to varying degrees with red, sometimes green, oblanceolate to oblong-oblanceolate, 2–6 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat, 0-lobed, apex obtuse to broadly rounded to sometimes acute or subtruncate; cauline green, sometimes proximal suffused with red or purple, linear to linear-lanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 1.1–6.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat, 0–3(–5)-lobed, apex usually acute, rarely obtuse; lobes erect to ascending, narrowly oblong to linear or narrowly lanceolate, to 1.8 cm, apex 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–)4–24(–33) × 2–4 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally bright yellow, rarely light orange, proximal narrowly lanceolate, leaflike, distal oblong to broadly rounded-oblanceolate, continuing to grow after anthesis and becoming greener and more leaflike, lateral lobes, if present, growing even more than central lobe, 0–5-lobed; lobes erect, triangular or lanceolate, sometimes linear, short or medium length, arising above mid length, proximal bract apex acute, distal rounded, rarely central lobe shallowly toothed. |
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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, (15–)17–23 mm; tube 8–11 mm; abaxial lip rarely exserted, beak exserted; beak adaxially green or yellow-green, 5–7 mm, margins yellow or yellow-green; abaxial lip ascending, deep green, slightly inflated, 2–3 mm, 20–30% as long as beak, apex rounded; teeth ascending, green, whitish, or yellow, 0.5–2 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 whitish or pale green, often aging purple, distally yellow, (13–)15–18 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–7 mm, 40–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0–0.2 mm, ca. 0% of calyx length; lobes curved, oblong, apex rounded to truncate, sometimes emarginate. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja kraliana |
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Phenology | Flowering (Mar–)Apr–Jun(–Jul). | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Full sun or partial shade, outcrops and glades, forest edges, river bluffs, Ketona dolomite. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 90–150 m. (300–500 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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AL |
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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 kraliana is restricted to dolomite glades in Bibb County, which is a local center of endemism near the Cahaba River. Castilleja kraliana has mostly entire, bright yellow bracts and calyces 13–18 mm, and differs from the related C. coccinea, which has deeply lobed and red, rarely yellow, bracts and calyces 17–28 mm. (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. 617. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | J. R. Allison: Castanea 66: 159, fig. 3. (2001) | ||||||||||||
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