Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja peirsonii |
|
---|---|---|
Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
Peirson's paintbrush |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.6–3(–4) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | |
Stems | few to several, erect or ascending, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs dense distally, less so proximally, spreading, long, soft, eglandular, also mixed with short stipitate-glandular ones distally. |
|
Leaves | green to purple, narrowly to broadly lanceolate to oblong, (0.7–)1.5–4.2(–5) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat or involute, (0–)3(–5)-lobed, apex acuminate; lobes ascending-spreading, narrowly lanceolate to linear, apex acute. |
|
Inflorescences | 2.5–7.5(–15) × 1.5–3 cm; bracts proximally greenish to dull reddish, distally bright red, orange, or pale orange, sometimes yellowish or dull red, broadly lanceolate to oblong, 3–5-lobed; lobes ascending, linear to lanceolate, ± long, arising above mid length, sometimes below mid length on proximal bracts, central lobe apex acute, rarely narrowly obtuse, lateral ones acute. |
|
Corollas | slightly curved, 15–28 mm; tube 13–15 mm; beak exserted, adaxially yellow or yellow-green, 7–8 mm; abaxial lip yellow or deep green, reduced, slightly inflated, pouched, protruding out abaxial cleft, 1–2.5 mm, 13–33% as long as beak; teeth erect or curved, yellow or green, 0.7–1 mm. |
|
Calyces | proximally light green or yellow, distally yellow or colored as bracts, 12–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5–9 mm, 40–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (1.5–)3–5.8 mm, 10–30% of calyx length; lobes oblong, apex acute to obtuse. |
|
2n | = 24. |
|
Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja peirsonii |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jun–Sep. | |
Habitat | Moist to wet meadows, stream banks, lakeshores, montane to alpine. | |
Elevation | 1700–3400 m. (5600–11200 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
|
CA; NV
|
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 peirsonii is endemic to the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada of California and in Tahoe Meadows in adjacent Washoe County, Nevada. Plants with yellow bracts in the southern portion of the range were named C. carterae. Castilleja peirsonii has shorter, wider corolla beaks than the related C. parviflora. In addition to the corolla shape differences, C. peirsonii also has red to yellow bracts and fairly bright yellow corollas, especially on the beaks, while C. parviflora has purple, pink, or white bracts and greenish corolla tubes and dorsal beak surfaces, with the beak margins pink, purple, or white. Reports from outside the Sierra Nevada in California and immediately adjacent Nevada are misidentifications. Castilleja peirsonii sometimes hybridizes with C. lemmonii in meadows where both species often occur in large numbers. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 659. | FNA vol. 17, p. 644. |
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. carterae | |
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 22. (1839) | Eastwood: Leafl. W. Bot. 1: 175. (1935) — (as peirsoni) |
Web links |