Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja latifolia |
|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
common paintbrush, common red paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush, great red paintbrush, scarlet Indian paintbrush, scarlet or common or giant red paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush |
Monterey coast paintbrush, Monterey Indian paintbrush, Monterey paintbrush, seaside paintbrush |
|||||||||||||
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, perennial, 2–6 dm; from a woody caudex and sometimes from a woody proximal stem; 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, spreading to erect, much-branched, with numerous short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs moderately dense, spreading, medium length to long, stiff to soft, shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
||||||||||||
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. |
gray-green becoming ± purple to sometimes green as hairs are lost, oblong to lanceolate-oblong or broadly lanceolate, 0.5–2 cm, ± fleshy, cupulate, sometimes obscurely so on distal portion of stem, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, involute, 0–3-lobed, apex truncate or broadly rounded to obtuse; lobes erect to ascending, oblong, apex rounded. |
||||||||||||
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 × 1.5–5 cm; bracts proximally green to dull, deep brownish purple, distally bright red, red-orange, or orange, sometimes yellow to yellow-orange, oblong or broadly lanceolate to widely obovate or ovate, often cup-shaped, center lobe often expanded distally, 0–3(–5)-lobed, often wavy-margined; lobes ascending, oblong, short or long, arising near or above mid length, central lobe apex mostly rounded to truncate, sometimes with 5 or so very shallow teeth. |
||||||||||||
Pedicels | 0–5 mm. |
|||||||||||||
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. |
slightly curved, 19–30 mm; tube 8.5–15 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green, 8.5–15 mm; abaxial lip ascending, deep green, reduced, 0.5–1 mm, 5–10% as long as beak; teeth incurved, reduced, green or white, 0.2–0.5 mm. |
||||||||||||
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 light green to sometimes purple, distally colored as bracts, 15–25 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–9.5 mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1–3 mm, ca. 12% of calyx length; lobes broadly triangular to oblong, apex rounded to obtuse, rarely acute. |
||||||||||||
2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
= 24. |
||||||||||||
Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja latifolia |
|||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Feb–Oct. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Coastal dunes and scrub, chaparral, grasslands, sandy bluffs. | |||||||||||||
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
|
CA
|
||||||||||||
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 latifolia is endemic to the central California coast, especially around Monterey Bay. Around Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County, it apparently forms hybrids with C. affinis var. affinis. Records of this species from north of San Francisco and south of Monterey County are referable to other species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 627. | FNA vol. 17, p. 619. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | ||||||||||||
Web links |
|