Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja lindheimeri |
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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 |
Lindheimer'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, perennial, 1.5–3 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. |
several, erect or ascending, branched or unbranched, sometimes with axillary tufts of leaves, hairs spreading to ± appressed, ± matted, short, soft, eglandular. |
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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 to purple, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1.3–7 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, involute, 3–5-lobed, apex acute to obtuse; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 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. |
4.5–18 × 1.5–3.5 cm; bracts proximally pale greenish to dull greenish brown, distally orange, reddish orange, or pale orange, sometimes reddish, lanceolate to oblong, 3(–5)-lobed; lobes ascending to spreading, linear to broadly lanceolate or oblanceolate, proximal ones usually arising below mid length, rarely at or above 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, 30–40 mm; tube 20–27 mm; beak, sometimes teeth of abaxial lip, exserted; beak adaxially green to yellowish, 8–15 mm; abaxial lip green, reduced, 2–3.5 mm, 20–25% as long as beak; teeth prominent, petaloid, spreading to erect, colored as in distal portion of bracts, 0.5–3 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 greenish or pale, distally colored as bracts, 23–33 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 10–15 mm, 40–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 7–11 mm, 20–35% of calyx length; lobes oblong to broadly linear, central lobe apex obtuse to rounded, lateral ones acute to rounded. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja lindheimeri |
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Phenology | Flowering Jan–May. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Rocky slopes, ridges, grasslands, pastures, open forests, roadsides, sometimes over limestone or granite. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 200–800 m. (700–2600 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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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.) |
Castilleja lindheimeri is endemic to the Edwards Plateau region. Unlike its close relatives, C. citrina and C. purpurea, most plants of C. lindheimeri have orange to reddish orange inflorescences, with smaller numbers varying to red. The leaves are also often less divided than in either C. citrina or C. purpurea. (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. 622. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. purpurea var. lindheimeri | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 298. (1878) — (as Castilleia) | ||||||||||||
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