Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja gleasoni |
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Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
Mount Gleason paintbrush, Mt. Gleason paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, 3–8 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | |
Stems | several to many, erect to ascending, branched, sometimes unbranched, hairs moderately dense, spreading, ± matted, ash gray, branched, sometimes unbranched, medium length, soft, often mixed with shorter, unbranched, stipitate-glandular ones, not obscuring surface. |
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Leaves | ash gray, linear-lanceolate to narrowly oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, 2–6 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse; lobes spreading, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute to obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | 10–15(–30) cm; bracts proximally greenish to dull brownish purple, distally red to deep red or red-orange, lanceolate to oblong or narrowly ovate, (0–)3(–5)-lobed; lobes ascending to spreading, narrowly oblong to narrowly lanceolate, medium length, arising below mid length, center lobe apex obtuse or toothed, lateral ones acute. |
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Corollas | ± straight, 18–30 mm; tube 9–15 mm; beak exserted, adaxially yellow, 9–15(–20) mm; abaxial lip spreading, deep green to ± black, reduced, 0.5–2 mm, 20% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 0.2–1 mm. |
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Calyces | proximally pale to green, sometimes dull purple, often paler or greener than bracts, distal 1/4 or less colored as bract lobes, 12–17 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 3–8 mm, 40% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–3 mm, 20–25% of calyx length; lobes ovate to narrowly triangular, apex obtuse to acute. |
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2n | = 72. |
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Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja gleasoni |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. | |
Habitat | Ledges, rocky slopes, open yellow pine forests, montane chaparral or sagebrush. | |
Elevation | 900–2200 m. (3000–7200 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
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CA |
Discussion | 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.) |
Castilleja gleasoni is an uncommon plant endemic to the upper elevations of the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County. It was treated as a polyploid derivative of C. affinis var. affinis (as subsp. affinis) × C. foliolosa (T. I. Chuang and L. R. Heckard 1993b), a hypothetical ancestry supported by a chromosome number of 2n = 72. Others have placed it as a subspecies of C. pruinosa, a similar species. However, the morphology of C. gleasoni also suggests it could have originated as a cross between the diploid C. foliolosa and a tetraploid form of C. martini; careful morphological and molecular analyses are needed to determine its true ancestry. Castilleja gleasoni is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 659. | FNA vol. 17, p. 610. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. pruinosa subsp. gleasoni | |
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 22. (1839) | Elmer: Bot. Gaz. 39: 51. (1905) — (as Castilleia) |
Web links |