Castilleja elegans |
Castilleja ambigua |
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elegant Indian paintbrush, elegant paintbrush |
estuarine paintbrush, johnny-nip, owl-clover paintbrush, paint-brush owl-clover, paintbrush, paintbrush owl's-clover |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.5–3 dm; from a woody caudex; with a slender taproot. | Herbs, annual, sometimes biennial, 0.6–3.5 dm; with fibrous roots. | ||||||||||||
Stems | few to several, ascending to erect, or slightly decumbent at base, unbranched, hairy, sometimes glabrate near base, hairs erect-ascending, whitish or yellowish, long, soft, eglandular, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones, especially distally. |
few to many, sometimes solitary (var. meadii), ascending or erect, often decumbent proximally, unbranched or branched above base, hairs sparse to moderately dense, spreading, long, soft, eglandular, mixed with short stipitate-glandular hairs. |
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Leaves | green to sometimes purple-tinged, lanceolate to narrowly oblong, (1.2–)2–6(–9) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, flat to ± involute, 0-lobed, sometimes 3-lobed distally, immediately below inflorescence, apex acuminate to caudate; lobes ascending to erect, linear to lanceolate, lateral lobes narrower than central, apex acuminate. |
green or brownish in upland forms, linear-lanceolate to widely lanceolate, linear, elliptic, obovate, or oblong, rarely ovate or cup-shaped, (0.6–)0.8–5 cm, fleshy or not, margins plane, flat, 3–5(–7)-lobed, apex rounded to obtuse or acuminate, abaxial surface often stipitate-glandular, adaxial sometimes shiny, glabrous; lobes ascending to erect, linear to lanceolate, apex acute or obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | 1.5–9 × 1.5–3 cm; bracts purple to pink-purple or reddish purple throughout, sometimes proximally purple to pink-purple or reddish purple, distally whitish or pale pink, oblong to lanceolate or narrowly ovate, (0–)3–7-lobed; lobes spreading-ascending, linear-lanceolate, narrow, short or long, arising near or above mid length, center lobe apex rounded to sometimes acute, lateral ones acute. |
1.5–9(–13) × 1–4 cm; bracts proximally green, rarely brownish purple, distally white, cream, pink, or purple on apices, lanceolate, oblong, or ovate, (0–)3–5(–7)-lobed; lobes ascending or divaricate-ascending, oblong to linear, short to long, arising below or above mid length, central lobe apex usually rounded to truncate, others acute to obtuse. |
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Corollas | straight, 18–28 mm; tube 17–20 mm; abaxial lip generally visible between calyx lobes, sometimes exserted above them, beak exserted; beak adaxially green, yellowish green, or purplish green, 4–8 mm; abaxial lip purple or magenta, medium sized, often visible through or above abaxial cleft, pouches 3, slightly inflated, 3–5.5 mm, 50+% as long as beak; teeth ascending, purple or magenta, 1–1.5 mm. |
straight, 14–24 mm; tube 11–21 mm, expanded distally; abaxial lip and beak usually exserted, beak straight or slightly curved, adaxially white, yellow, or pink, sometimes green or purplish, (1–)4–7 mm, sparsely to densely short-hairy; abaxial lip pale to bright yellow, sometimes becoming pink, orange, or red after anthesis, with red-brown or purple spots at base of each tooth and sometimes at base of each pouch, conspicuous, pouches 3, ± prominent, divergent, saccate, 2–7 × 3–7 mm, (33–)60–75(–90)% as long as beak; teeth erect, sometimes spreading, white, pink, purple, or green, often with whitish bases, 1–3 mm. |
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Calyces | yellow to yellow-green, rarely purplish to dull red throughout, 19–25 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 10–17 mm, 60–70% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (2–)5–8 mm, 20–25% of calyx length; lobes narrowly oblong to lanceolate, apex rounded or obtuse, sometimes acute. |
green to pale yellowish green or tipped with white or purple, 8–23 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5–9 mm, 33–50(–67)% of calyx length, lateral 2–5.5 mm, 20–40% of calyx length; lobes linear or narrowly lanceolate to oblong or ± triangular, apex acuminate or narrowly acute to obtuse or rounded. |
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Filaments | glabrous. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja elegans |
Castilleja ambigua |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Meadows, tundra, fell fields, moraines, talus, rocky slopes, shrub thickets, gravel bars, lakeshores. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–2000 m. (0–6600 ft.) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; MB; NT; NU; QC; YT; e Asia (Russian Far East) |
CA; OR; WA; BC
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Discussion | Castilleja elegans is a characteristic species of the arctic and arctic-alpine regions. Its eastern and western limits are poorly understood, due to confusion with the similar species C. raupii to the east and south, and with C. rubra (Drobow) Rebristaya in eastern Asia. All three are part of a morphologically variable complex of recently evolved and poorly differentiated entities informally known as the C. pallida complex, after the first-described member of the group. Some reports of C. elegans in eastern Canada are here referred to C. septentrionalis. A recent collection of C. elegans from the northern Canadian Rocky Mountains is apparently disjunct, though it may also suggest its wider presence in Alberta. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Castilleja ambigua is a complex species, treated here with four varieties, though many localized variations exist among populations, and these are still incompletely understood. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 604. | FNA vol. 17, p. 584. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. pallida subsp. elegans | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Malte: Rhodora 36: 187. (1934) | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | ||||||||||||
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