Castilleja nivea |
Castilleja minor |
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snow Indian paintbrush, snow paintbrush, snowy paintbrush |
annual paintbrush, California threadtorch, lesser Indian paintbrush, little paintbrush, seep paintbrush, thread-torch paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.5–1.6 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, annual, 2–10(–15) dm; with a short taproot or small, fibrous root system. | ||||||||||||
Stems | few to several, erect to ascending, decumbent at base, unbranched except for small, leafy axillary shoots, hairs weakly spreading to appressed, ± matted, especially distally on stem, fairly short and sparse proximally, longer and denser distally, soft, eglandular, becoming woolly, often obscuring surface. |
solitary or few, erect, unbranched, rarely branched distally, hairs sparse to dense, spreading, sometimes shaggy (var. minor), short to long, soft to stiff, eglandular and/or sparsely to densely stipitate-glandular. |
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Leaves | gray with hairs, surface green to purple, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–3.8 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, involute, 0–3-lobed, apex acute; lobes ascending-spreading, linear to narrowly lanceolate, apex acute to obtuse. |
green or purple to ± gray, linear to lanceolate, 2–10 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes wavy, ± involute, 0-lobed, apex acuminate to acute, sometimes obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | 2.5–6 × 1–2.5 cm; bracts greenish to pale yellow-green or very pale, dull purplish throughout, lanceolate to oblong, (0–)3(–5)-lobed; lobes usually ascending, linear, medium length to long, arising near mid length, apex acute. |
5–40 × 1–4 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally red, red-orange, or pale orange, rarely yellow, on apices, narrowly lanceolate, sometimes narrowly oblong to spatulate distally, 0-lobed, plane-margined, apex acuminate (oblong to narrowly spatulate in var. spiralis). |
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Corollas | straight, 18–25 mm; tube 3.5–5.5 mm; subequal to calyx, or beak and sometimes abaxial lip exserted; beak adaxially yellow, 6–8 mm, hairs moderately long, matted on midline, very short-glandular on sides; abaxial lip green, inconspicuous, slightly pouched, 3.5–5.5 mm, 60–90% as long as beak; teeth erect, white or yellow, 0.5–3 mm. |
straight, 13–39 mm; tube 11–16(–20) mm; beak partially to completely exserted, sometimes included, adaxially yellow, pale orange to red-orange, reddish brown, green, or white, 5–15(–20) mm; abaxial lip yellow, white, red, deep red, red-violet, or green, colored as or strongly contrasting with rest of corolla, small but jutting out at 90° from axis of corolla, often readily visible through abaxial cleft, 1–3 mm, 5–25% as long as beak; teeth spreading to strongly incurved, green, white, yellow, red, or red-purple, 0.2–1 mm. |
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Calyces | yellow, color mostly obscured by whitish hairs, 15–22 mm; abaxial, adaxial, and lateral clefts (5.5–)7–12 mm, 35–55% of calyx length, often appearing shorter because matted hairs stitch proximal part of clefts shut, all 4 clefts subequal; lobes broadly linear, apex acute. |
green or yellowish green, 13–27(–28) mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–15 mm, 33–75% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–4 mm, 5–20% of calyx length; lobes linear to narrowly triangular or narrowly lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja nivea |
Castilleja minor |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Gravelly slopes and flats, turf and fellfields, mostly alpine. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 1700–3600 m. (5600–11800 ft.) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
MT; WY
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Castilleja nivea is endemic to alpine habitats in the mountains of northwestern Wyoming and adjacent Montana. It forms occasional hybrids with C. pulchella, which often shares its habitat, as on the Beartooth Plateau in northwestern Wyoming. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Castilleja minor is a widespread specialist of seeps, saline shores, and wet ground at moderate elevations. California has many populations on serpentine substrates. Most of the varieties have distinct ranges with little overlap, with the exception of the edaphic obligate var. spiralis, which is restricted to serpentine substrates. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 634. | FNA vol. 17, p. 630. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | C. affinis var. minor | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Pennell & Ownbey: Notul. Nat. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 227: 2. (1950) | (A. Gray) A. Gray: in W. H. Brewer et al., Bot. California 1: 573. (1876) — (as Castilleia) | ||||||||||||
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