Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja pulchella |
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Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
beautiful Indian paintbrush, beautiful paintbrush, showy paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.5–1(–2) dm; from a woody caudex; with a slender taproot. | |
Stems | few to several, erect or ascending, usually decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, short and long, soft, mostly glandular. |
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Leaves | green to deep purple, linear to broadly lanceolate, 1–3.5(–5) cm, not fleshy, margins plane or wavy, slightly involute, (0–)3–5-lobed, apex acuminate to acute, sometimes obtuse; lateral lobes ascending-spreading, sometimes widely spreading, narrowly lanceolate to linear, mostly short, apex acute. |
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Inflorescences | 2–7 × 1.5–3 cm; bracts yellow-green, yellow, pinkish, pale reddish, or purple, sometimes distal margins pale white, oblong to broadly lanceolate to ovate, 0–5-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly lanceolate, medium length to long, usually arising above mid length, rarely from below mid length, center lobe apex rounded to truncate, lateral ones acute to obtuse. |
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Corollas | straight or slightly curved, 17–22(–25) mm; tube 11–16 mm; subequal to calyx or beak, sometimes abaxial lip, exserted; beak adaxially yellow to green, 4–6(–7) mm; abaxial lip green or yellow, reduced, often visible through front cleft, prominently pouched, thickened, 3–4(–5) mm, 50–67% as long as beak; teeth erect, white, yellow, pink, or purple, 1.5–3 mm. |
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Calyces | colored as bracts, sometimes strongly bicolored green or proximally whitish and distally as bract lobes, (12–)13–23(–25) mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5–11 mm, 45–55% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (0.5–)1–3(–5) mm, 5–20% of calyx length; lobes broadly triangular, apex obtuse to rounded, rarely acute. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja pulchella |
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Phenology | Flowering (May–)Jun–Aug. | |
Habitat | Moist meadows, turf, rocky slopes and flats, talus, fellfields, subalpine to alpine. | |
Elevation | 1800–3500 m. (5900–11500 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
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ID; MT; UT; WY
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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 pulchella is a mostly alpine species of the mountains of western Montana and adjacent Idaho and northwestern Wyoming, as well as in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah. It is similar to and likely shares ancestry with C. chrysantha of the mountains of northeastern Oregon. Castilleja pulchella is variable in color, with inflorescences ranging from pale yellow to purplish, often within the same population. Some lower elevation populations are known. These plants are considerably taller, and they tend to have only yellowish inflorescences. Where the two occur together, C. pulchella occasionally forms hybrids with C. nivea. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 659. | FNA vol. 17, p. 648. |
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 |