Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja miniata var. oblongifolia |
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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 |
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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 2.4–8 dm; 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. |
glabrous or glabrate proximally, hairy medially and distally, hairs moderately dense, appressed to weakly spreading, short to long, soft, eglandular to sometimes stipitate-glandular. |
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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. |
appressed-ascending, ascending, or spreading, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblong or ovate, slightly to moderately thickened and slightly fleshy, sometimes thin and not fleshy, margins plane, rarely wavy, flat, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acute. |
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Bracts | distally red, red-orange, pale orange, pink, salmon, or reddish magenta, 0–5-lobed; lobe 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. |
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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. |
28–48 mm; beak 15–25 mm; abaxial lip dark green or yellowish to whitish, 1–2.5 mm, 5–15% as long as beak. |
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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. |
19–38 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–24 mm, 40% of calyx length, subequal or abaxial longer, lateral 2–12 mm, 10–25% of calyx length; lobes linear to narrowly lanceolate, apex acuminate. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja miniata var. oblongifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Sep(–Oct). | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Stream banks, seeps and damp ground in open conifer forests, roadside banks. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 600–2800 m. (2000–9200 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.) |
Variety oblongifolia largely replaces var. miniata from the upper elevations of the San Bernardino and eastern San Gabriel mountains in San Bernardino County, as well as the Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains in San Diego County, and it extends southward into the mountains of northwestern Baja California, particularly in the Sierra Juarez. Variety oblongifolia rarely has oblong leaves, but it differs from var. miniata in its densely puberulent stems and leaves, unusually long, narrow, acuminate calyx lobes, usually ascending-appressed leaves that are often brittle and slightly fleshy, and usually pale orange-red inflorescences. While they are occasionally found singly in populations of the nominate variety, the combination of these otherwise unusual characters is unique in var. oblongifolia. (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. 629. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja > Castilleja miniata | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. oblongifolia | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | (A. Gray) Munz: Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 31: 69. (1932) | ||||||||||||
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