Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja nervata |
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Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
trans-Pecos Indian paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, 3–6(–10) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | |
Stems | solitary or few, ascending to erect, straight, unbranched or branched, hairs dense, spreading, long, stiff, eglandular, mixed with deflexed, short stipitate-glandular ones. |
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Leaves | green to purple-tinged, linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate or oblanceolate, 1.5–8 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 0-lobed, apex rounded to acute. |
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Inflorescences | 3–16 × 2–4.5 cm; bracts proximally green to deep purple, distally red to red-orange or orange, sometimes with a pale medial band, lanceolate to oblanceolate to ovate or obovate, 0(–3)-lobed; lobes when present upright, ± triangular, short, arising from distal portion, apex obtuse to rounded or truncate. |
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Corollas | straight, 15–24 mm; tube 11–13 mm; subequal to calyx or tip slightly exserted; beak adaxially whitish to pinkish, 5–11 mm; abaxial lip pale to deep green, reduced, 1–2 mm, 10–20% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 1–2.5 mm. |
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Calyces | proximally light green, distally deep green, deep purple, or blackish, 15–24 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5–9 mm, 25–45% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0–0.5 mm, 0–3% of calyx length; lobes oblong, sometimes emarginate, apex obtuse, rounded, or obliquely truncate. |
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2n | = 24, 48. |
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Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja nervata |
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Phenology | Flowering Aug–Sep. | |
Habitat | Dry south-facing rocky slopes with scattered bunchgrasses and oaks, cliff bases, mesa tops, open pine-oak woodlands, rocky savannas. | |
Elevation | 1800–2400 m. (5900–7900 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
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AZ; Mexico (Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Colima, Durango, Guerrero, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Sonora, Veracruz)
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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 nervata is a common and widespread Mexican species, from northern Chihuahua and Sonora south to central Oaxaca. It has medicinal value to indigenous peoples of the Sierra Madre. In the flora area, C. nervata is known from a single, presumably extant population in the Chiricahua Mountains in Cochise County, though there are historical records from the Rincon and Santa Rita mountains. The sole recently verified population is on private property and is endangered. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 659. | FNA vol. 17, p. 634. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. cruenta | |
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 22. (1839) | Eastwood: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 44: 574. (1909) |
Web links |