Castilleja tenuiflora
Castilleja tenuiflora var. tenuiflora
Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush
few to many, erect or ascending, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs dense, spreading to ±reflexed, short, ± stiff, eglandular.
erect to ± reflexed, green to sometimes purple, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2–3(–4) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat to slightly involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acute to acuminate;
lobes spreading, linear, narrowly triangular, short, apex acute.
3–11 × (2.5–)5–7 cm;
bracts red or green throughout, rarely light orange or light yellow throughout, or proximally greenish, distally colored as above, less showy than calyces, lanceolate, 0(–3)-lobed;
lobes erect, linear or lanceolate-acuminate, short, arising near apex, apex acute.
straight or slightly curved, 36–47 mm;
tube 18–25 mm;
abaxial lip often exserted, beak exserted;
beak adaxially whitish, yellow to green, or reddish, 15–26(–30) mm;
abaxial lip green to yellow or white, reduced, protruding through abaxial cleft, 1–2 mm, ca. 8% as long as beak;
teeth incurved, white or deep green, 0.5–1 mm.
entirely red or proximally green, distally red, light orange, or light yellow, 27–35(–40) mm;
abaxial clefts 12–18 mm, adaxial 8–14 mm, abaxial 55–60% of calyx length, adaxial 20–35% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0(–2.5) mm, 0(–7)% of calyx length;
lobes linear to lanceolate to broadly triangular, apex rounded to emarginate or acute.
= 24, 48.
Castilleja tenuiflora
Castilleja tenuiflora var. tenuiflora
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.)
Variety tenuiflora is fairly common in the southern Sky Island ranges of southeastern Arizona and occurs in the Animas Mountains of Hidalgo County, southwestern New Mexico. It is also found throughout much of Mexico, where it is the most common species of Castilleja.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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