Castilleja rupicola |
Castilleja septentrionalis |
|
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cliff Indian paintbrush, cliff paintbrush |
Labrador Indian paintbrush, northeastern paintbrush, northern or sulfur or yellow paintbrush, northern paintbrush, northern painted-cup, sulphur Indian paintbrush, sulphur paintbrush |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, (0.8–)1–2(–3) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, (1.5–)2.5–5.5(–7) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot or system of slender to stout, branched roots. |
Stems | many, decumbent to ascending, unbranched, sparsely pubescent, hairs spreading, wavy, fairly short, soft, eglandular, sometimes glabrous proximally. |
few to several, erect to ascending or ± decumbent at base, unbranched or branched, sometimes with short, leafy axillary shoots, glabrous or glabrate proximally, sometimes hairy, hairs spreading to retrorsely curved, short, ± stiff throughout, spreading, longer, soft to ± stiff distally, often glandular and short-glandular. |
Leaves | purple to green, narrowly, rarely broadly, lanceolate, 1.4–4 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat to involute, (0–)3–5(–7)-lobed, apex acute to acuminate; lobes divergent, spreading-ascending, linear, long, not much narrower than mid blade, often with secondary lobes, creating little frilly fans, apex acute or obtuse. |
green to purplish, linear-lanceolate or narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 2–7(–8) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat to involute, prominently veined, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acute to acuminate; lobes ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, short, apex acute or obtuse. |
Inflorescences | 2–6 × 2–3.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish or deep purple near base, distally red, scarlet, or crimson to red-orange, rarely orange, salmon, pink, or yellowish white, ovate to orbicular in outline, 5(–9)-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to linear-lanceolate, long, arising below mid length, apex acute to rounded. |
2.1–11 × 1.5–4 cm; bracts proximally greenish to pale yellow-green, sometimes brownish purple, distally white to cream or light yellow, sometimes light pink or buff, sometimes aging pink or reddish, broadly lanceolate to oblong or obovate, sometimes lanceolate, 0–3(–5)-lobed, sometimes with irregular teeth at apex; lobes erect, triangular, short, arising at or above mid length, center lobe apex obtuse to rounded, sometimes acute, lateral ones acute. |
Corollas | straight or slightly curved, 25–35(–45) mm; tube 9–15 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green, purplish, or yellow-green, 14–22 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, 0.5–2 mm, 6–12% as long as beak; teeth incurved to erect, green, 0.5 mm. |
± straight, (16–)18–30 mm; tube 10–20 mm; teeth of abaxial lip rarely exserted, beak exserted; beak adaxially green or yellowish, 6–12 mm; abaxial lip green or whitish, reduced, slightly inflated, 1.5–3 mm, 25–30% as long as beak; teeth incurved to erect, green or white, 0.5–2 mm. |
Calyces | proximally purple, green, or whitish, distally colored as bract lobes, 15–25 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 8 mm, ca. 40–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1–5 mm, 10–20% of calyx length; lobes triangular, apex obtuse or acute. |
colored as bracts, 13–23(–28) mm; abaxial clefts (6–)8–13 mm, adaxial (5–)6–10(–11) mm, clefts (25–)35–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1–4 mm, 5–25% of calyx length; lobes triangular to lanceolate, abaxial and adaxial segments often differing in length or width, apex obtuse to acute. |
2n | = 24, 48, 96. |
|
Castilleja rupicola |
Castilleja septentrionalis |
|
Phenology | Flowering (May–)Jun–Sep. | Flowering (Apr–)May–Sep. |
Habitat | Sunny rocky slopes, scree, talus, ledges, fellfields, subalpine to alpine. | Moist meadows, peatlands, open forests, gravel, rocky slopes, ridges, slides, lowlands to subalpine. |
Elevation | (200–)1000–2500 m. ((700–)3300–8200 ft.) | 0–3700 m. (0–12100 ft.) |
Distribution |
OR; WA; BC
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CO; ID; ME; MI; MN; MT; NH; NM; SD; UT; VT; WY; AB; BC; NB; NL; NT; NU; ON; QC
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Discussion | Castilleja rupicola is usually found in the subalpine and lower alpine zones in the Cascade Range from extreme southern British Columbia south to northern Douglas County, Oregon. Though it can be numerous where it occurs, the species as a whole is uncommon. One atypical population occurs in a moist, shaded, mossy, north-facing ravine on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, at less than 250 m. These plants often bear secondary divisions on deeply dissected leaves and bracts. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja septentrionalis is one of the most widespread species in the flora area. It occurs throughout much of the Rocky Mountain region, from New Mexico northward into southern Canada and sporadically eastward to the Atlantic coast, as well as in the higher mountains and notches of New England. Rocky Mountain plants are commonly called C. sulphurea, but there is broad morphological overlap between these plants and those in New England and eastern Canada, where C. septentrionalis was first described, and they are here considered synonymous. Varietal segregates may eventually prove to be appropriate, especially in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and in southeastern Canada and the adjacent United States, but this should await a comprehensive and detailed review across the full range of the species. The relationship of Castilleja septentrionalis with the largely alpine species, C. occidentalis, has been the subject of much discussion, but the two have discrete ranges and usually remain reasonably easy to separate. The same cannot be said for plants from the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where some specimens in relatively low-elevation, riverine flood plains and lake basins seem transitional to the boreal-arctic C. pallida. Castilleja septentrionalis occasionally forms localized hybrid swarms with its close relatives, C. miniata and C. rhexiifolia, where the morphological boundaries between the species seem to disintegrate. However, most populations of all three species are distinct and easily recognizable, and each has a different range, despite extensive sympatry. A possible hybrid with C. linariifolia bears the name C. ×cognata Greene, and a probable hybrid with C. miniata from southern Nevada is known as C. ×porterae Cockerell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 653. | FNA vol. 17, p. 656. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. pallida subsp. septentrionalis, C. rhexiifolia var. sulphurea, C. sulphurea | |
Name authority | Piper: Erythea 6: 45. (1898) — (as Castilleia) | Lindley: Bot. Reg. 11: plate 925. (1825) |
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