Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja parvula |
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Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
Tushar Indian paintbrush, Tushar Mountains paintbrush, Tushar Plateau Indian paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1–2 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot or stout, branched roots. | |
Stems | several to many, decumbent to ascending, unbranched except for small, leafy axillary shoots, hairs retrorse, short proximally, spreading, longer distally, soft, stipitate-glandular. |
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Leaves | green to blackish, proximalmost small and scalelike, linear to narrowly or broadly lanceolate, 1–3(–4) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex obtuse to rounded; lobes ascending, linear or short-lanceolate, very small, apex acute to obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | 4–6.5 × 1–3 cm; bracts proximally greenish to deep purple near base, distally magenta, deep pink, or red, broadly lanceolate to elliptic, oblong, or ovate, 0–5-lobed; lobes ascending to erect, triangular to oblong, short, arising near apex, central lobe apex rounded, lateral ones acute to rounded. |
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Corollas | straight, 16–24 mm; tube 10–13(–15) mm; beak exserted, adaxially green, 4.5–8(–9) mm; abaxial lip green to deep purple, reduced, 1–3 mm, 40–45% as long as beak; teeth incurved, greenish, (0.5–)1–2.5 mm. |
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Calyces | colored as bracts, 12–18 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5.5–8.5(–10) mm, ca. 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1–3(–5) mm, ca. 25% of calyx length; lobes broadly linear or narrowly triangular, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes rounded. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja parvula |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | |
Habitat | Gravelly meadows, rocky slopes, talus, ridges, krummholz zone or alpine. | |
Elevation | 2700–3700 m. (8900–12100 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
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UT
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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 parvula is limited to the upper elevations of the Tushar Mountains. Morphologically, it appears to be a species derived from the widespread Rocky Mountains species C. rhexiifolia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 659. | FNA vol. 17, p. 642. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 22. (1839) | Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 34: 40. (1907) |
Web links |