Castilleja thompsonii
Castilleja citrina
Thompson's Indian paintbrush, Thompson's owl clover, Thompson's paintbrush
lemon paintbrush
few to many, erect or ascending, unbranched or branched, hairs spreading, long, stiff, sometimes soft (especially in higher elevations), eglandular, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones.
few to many, erect to ascending, unbranched or branched, hairs appressed to ± ascending, matted, long, soft, mixed with short-glandular ones, denser distally, sometimes obscuring surface.
green to purple or reddish brown, linear to narrowly oblong or linear-lanceolate, 1.4–7.4 cm, not fleshy, margins plane to ± wavy, involute or flat, 3(–7)-lobed, apex acuminate;
lobes spreading-ascending, linear, short to long moving up leaf axis, apex acute or obtuse.
green, sometimes brown, linear to linear-lanceolate, 3–7 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, 3–7-lobed, apex acute to rounded;
lateral lobes spreading, narrowly linear, apex acuminate.
2.5–14 × 1–4 cm;
bracts greenish to pale yellow or reddish brown throughout, or proximally greenish to dull reddish purple, or ruddy brown, distally greenish to yellow-green or yellow, often aging dull reddish to dull purplish, lanceolate to oblong to ovate, 3–5(–9)-lobed;
lobes spreading to ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, long, proximal lobes arising below mid length, apex acute to obtuse.
(3.5–)8–20 × 2–5.5 cm;
bracts proximally greenish, distally bright yellow, sometimes pale yellow to pale orange, sometimes aging white to pink, narrowly to broadly lanceolate or oblong, 3–5(–7)-lobed;
lobes spreading to ascending, linear, long, arising at or below mid length, apex obtuse to rounded.
straight, 18–21 mm;
tube 11–16 mm; subequal to calyx, sometimes beak exserted;
beak adaxially green, 5–7(–8) mm;
abaxial lip white, often proximally reddish, prominent, scarcely expanded, ± cylindric, 2.5–4(–5) mm, 50–70% as long as beak, glabrous or obscurely puberulent;
teeth incurved to erect, white, 2.5 mm.
straight but curved at tip, 30–41 mm;
tube 21–26 mm;
beak slightly to long-exserted, adaxially green to yellowish, sometimes aging pinkish, 10–15 mm;
abaxial lip white or yellow, sometimes partly green, darkening with age, only slightly inflated, exserted from abaxial cleft, 3–7 mm, ca. 50% as long as beak;
teeth prominent, petaloid, spreading, yellow, 2.5–6 mm.
colored as bracts, 12–25 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–8 mm, 20–60% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (0–)1–3 mm, 7–25% of calyx length;
lobes linear, lanceolate, or triangular, apex acute, sometimes obtuse.
green, pale green, or whitish, lobes colored as bracts, 12–18 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 8–15 mm, 60–75% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2.5–3 mm, 20% of calyx length;
lobes linear to very narrowly triangular (equilaterally triangular if very short), apex obtuse to rounded.
= 24, 48.
= 24.
Castilleja thompsonii
Castilleja citrina
Castilleja thompsonii is a characteristic species of the sagebrush communities on the eastern slope of the Cascade Range in Washington, and in the high deserts of the Columbia Basin. Historically, its range approached but apparently never entered Idaho in the Spokane River valley, but much of its habitat in that area is now converted to agriculture or suburban development or overwhelmed by non-native, invasive plants. Castilleja thompsonii occurs in a few sites in the Okanogan Valley region of southern British Columbia and at one site on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range in Wasco County, Oregon. A distinctive form from the subalpine and alpine zones of Mt. Adams, in the southern Cascade Range of Washington, was named C. villicaulis. This form may merit varietal status under C. thompsonii. While both names were described in the same paper, C. thompsonii is the name used in all regional floras since their publication, after C. villicaulis was reduced to synonymy by M. Ownbey (1959).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Although the range of Castilleja citrina overlaps the range of its close relatives, C. lindheimeri and C. purpurea, in central Texas, C. citrina extends considerably farther to the west and northwest of the others (G. L. Nesom and J. M. Egger 2014). The inflorescences of C. citrina are mostly pale to bright lemon yellow or occasionally brassy yellow. The color and usually more elongate abaxial corolla lip separate it from C. lindheimeri and C. purpurea. Castilleja citrina is similar to some color forms of C. sessiliflora, but the more conspicuously curved corolla of C. sessiliflora is usually exserted far above the calyx and is often white to pale pink, rather than yellow.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
KS Wildflowers
