Castilleja tenuiflora
Castilleja applegatei
Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush
Applegate's Indian paintbrush, Applegate's paintbrush, wavy leaf paintbrush, wavy-leaf Indian paintbrush, waxy-leaf Indian paintbrush
few to many, erect, ascending, or decumbent, unbranched or branched, hairs sparse to dense, spreading, long, soft to ± stiff, eglandular, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones.
green to purplish or brown, linear to broadly lanceolate, sometimes ovate, 1–6 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, involute, (0–)3(–5)-lobed, apex rounded or narrowly acute to acuminate;
lobes spreading or ascending, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, often short, apex acute to rounded.
2–12(–21 in fruit) × 1–5 cm;
bracts proximally green to dull purplish brown, distally red, red-orange, or scarlet, sometimes orange, white, or yellow, rarely with a narrow yellowish band medially, lanceolate, broadly lanceolate, oblong, or lanceolate-ovate, 3–5(–7)-lobed;
lobes spreading to ascending, linear, sometimes expanded near tip, long, arising from ca. mid length, central lobe apex obtuse to rounded, sometimes expanded, others acute, rounded, obtuse, or acuminate.
straight or curved in proximal 1/3, 16–35(–41) mm;
tube 9–22 mm;
beak usually long-exserted, adaxially green, yellow-green, or yellow, 6–20 mm;
abaxial lip deep green to whitish or yellow, reduced, inconspicuous, protuberant, thickened, included or exserted, 1–3 mm, 5–20% as long as beak;
teeth ascending or incurved, deep green to yellow, 0.5–1 mm.
proximally green or whitish, sometimes yellow, lobes colored as bract lobes, sometimes with a yellow band between proximal and distal portions, 13–25 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–14 mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2.5–8 mm, 12–50% of calyx length;
lobes lanceolate-acuminate, narrowly oblong, or narrowly triangular, apex acuminate, acute, or obtuse.
= 24, 48.
Castilleja tenuiflora
Castilleja applegatei
Varieties 3 (1 in the flora).
Castilleja tenuiflora is common and widespread across the mountains of Mexico, especially in pine-oak-madrone communities at middle elevations, as far south as Oaxaca, where it is found west and north of the Tehuantepec lowlands. There are two varieties of C. tenuiflora endemic to Mexico, while the typical variety crosses into the mountains of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. Considerable local and regional variation exists in C. tenuiflora, but most of this appears to be racial in nature, and additional named varieties are likely not justified. While also commonly herbaceous, C. tenuiflora often forms large, multi-stemmed, subshrub plants with a woody base and ascending to strongly erect and often branched stems. It is valued in Mexican traditional medicine and is under study for potentially useful compounds (M. Jiménez et al. 1995; P. M. Sanchez et al. 2013).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 4 (4 in the flora).
Castilleja applegatei is a widespread and often common species, with complex patterns of variation and several common but inconstant color forms, especially in var. pinetorum. Castilleja disticha and C. martini, although sometimes included as subspecies within C. applegatei, are treated as species here. Both are more morphologically divergent and more easily distinguished from typical C. applegatei than are the four varieties accepted here. Variety pinetorum is the most widespread form and also occurs over a wider range of elevations than the other three varieties, which are primarily montane to subalpine and occasionally alpine.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Corollas 25–41 mm, beaks 9–20 mm, tubes 15–22 mm; leaves usually 0–3-lobed. | → 2 |
2. Corollas 34–41 mm; herbs 1–2.5(–3.5) dm; 2100–2800 m; Crater Lake to Newberry Crater, Cascade Range, Oregon. | var. applegatei |
2. Corollas 25–35 mm; herbs 1.2–6 dm; 300–3600 m; California to Oregon and Idaho. | var. pinetorum |
1. Corollas 16–31 mm, beaks 6–14 mm, tubes 9–14 mm; leaves usually 3–5-lobed. | → 3 |
3. Corolla beaks 6–10 mm; abaxial and adaxial calyx clefts (4–)5–8(–10) mm. | var. breweri |
3. Corolla beaks 9–14 mm; abaxial and adaxial calyx clefts 7–14 mm. | var. viscida |
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