Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja grisea |
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Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
San Clemente Island Indian paintbrush, San Clemente Island paintbrush |
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Habit | Subshrubs or shrubs, perennial, 4–6(–10) dm, to 20 dm wide; from a woody caudex; with thick, woody roots. | |
Stems | many, spreading and ascending, much-branched, with short, leafy axillary shoots, proximal stems 1+ cm wide, hairs dense, spreading, matted, white, medium length, soft, stellate, sometimes mixed with short stipitate-glandular ones especially near inflorescence, partially obscuring surface. |
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Leaves | ash gray, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–6.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane or slightly wavy, involute, 0–7-lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces almost obscured by hairs, at least when young; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to narrowly oblong, apex acute to acuminate. |
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Inflorescences | (3–)7.5–11.5 × 1.5–3.5 cm; bracts proximally greenish, distally ± pale yellow, proximals sometimes greenish throughout, linear to narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, (3–)5–7-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly oblong, long, proximal lobes arising below mid length, apex obtuse to acute. |
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Corollas | curved in proximal 1/3, 15–25 mm; tube 11 mm; abaxial lip not exserted, sometimes visible in abaxial cleft, beak exserted; beak adaxially green or dull yellow, 7–9 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, 1–2 mm, less than 25% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 0.7–1 mm. |
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Calyces | colored as bracts, 10–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5.5–7 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0–1 mm, 0–8% of calyx length; lobes oblong, apex truncate to rounded or obtuse, rarely emarginate, inner surface glandular. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja grisea |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Jun. | |
Habitat | Coastal terraces and slopes, cliffs and canyon walls, coastal sage scrub. | |
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
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CA
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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 grisea is endemic to a small portion of San Clemente Island in Los Angeles County, which is managed by the U.S. Navy. It was one of the first plants listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of the United States, and its near extinction was due to grazing by feral goats. Plants responded well when the goats were removed, spreading from their last refuge on inaccessible cliffs onto gentle terrain at the southern end of the island, near the type locality, and are now locally fairly common. Ungrazed old shrubs can reach 1 m in height and 2 m in breadth and often have a thick woody trunk. The stellate pubescence is unusual in Castilleja. Castilleja grisea 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. 611. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. hololeuca subsp. grisea | |
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 22. (1839) | Dunkle: Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 42: 31. (1943) |
Web links |