Castilleja gracillima |
Castilleja chlorotica |
|
---|---|---|
slender Indian paintbrush, slender paintbrush |
green tinged paintbrush, green-tinged or Gearheart Mountain paintbrush, greentinge Indian paintbrush |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, 2–5.5 dm; from a remote woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 0.8–3.1 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. |
Stems | solitary, sometimes few, proximally creeping, becoming rhizomatous, erect to ascending distally, unbranched, sometimes branched, often glabrate proximally, hairy distally, hairs spreading, medium length and long, soft, mixed with much shorter stipitate-glandular ones near inflorescence. |
several to many, erect to ascending, unbranched, sometimes branched near base, hairs spreading, long, soft, eglandular, mixed with dense, short stipitate-glandular ones. |
Leaves | green to purplish, linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 1.2–7.1 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, slightly involute, 0-lobed, apex acute to acuminate. |
green, narrowly to broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 9–35 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, involute, 0(–3)-lobed, distal sometimes 3-lobed, apex narrowly acuminate; lobes ascending or spreading, linear to lanceolate, apex acute to obtuse. |
Inflorescences | 4.5–18 × 1.5–6 cm; bracts white, cream, pale yellow, pink, salmon, orange, or dull red throughout, or proximally greenish, distally as above, broadly lanceolate to oblong, 0–3(–5)-lobed; lobes ascending to erect, lanceolate to triangular, often short, arising above mid length, apex obtuse or rounded, sometimes acute or acuminate. |
3–9(–18) × 2–3 cm; bracts green to pale green to rarely dull purplish brown throughout, distally rarely with pale yellow apices, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly elliptic to sometimes broadly lanceolate, 3-lobed, wavy-margined; lobes spreading or ascending, narrowly lanceolate, medium length, arising at or above mid length, sometimes wavy-margined, apex obtuse to acute. |
Corollas | ± straight, 19–30 mm; tube 11–19 mm; beak exserted from calyx, adaxially green, 7.5–11 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, 1–2 mm, 20% as long as beak; teeth incurved to erect, green, 0.5–1 mm. |
conspicuously decurved distally, 18–22 mm; tube 11–14 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green to yellow-green or yellow, 6–8 mm; abaxial lip green, reduced, fleshy, included, 1.5–2 mm, 25% as long as beak, sparsely hairy, hairs spreading; teeth ascending, green, 0.5–1 mm. |
Calyces | colored as bracts, pigmentation often confined to lobes, 15–22 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 7–14 mm, 40–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2–6.5 mm, 10–20% of calyx length; lobes narrowly triangular to narrowly lanceolate, apex acute (to sometimes acuminate in Logan Valley). |
green or yellowish green, 15–19 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 9–11 mm, 60% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 3.5–7 mm, 15–25% of calyx length; lobes broadly or narrowly triangular, taller than wide, apex acute to obtuse. |
2n | = 48. |
|
Castilleja gracillima |
Castilleja chlorotica |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Aug. | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Mesic or wet, usually flat meadows, sometimes near hot springs, along stream banks, montane. | Dry open pine forests, often with sagebrush understory, rocky ridges and summits, montane to subalpine. |
Elevation | 1600–2500 m. (5200–8200 ft.) | 2000–2500 m. (6600–8200 ft.) |
Distribution |
ID; MT; OR; WY
|
OR |
Discussion | Castilleja gracillima populations are centered around the Greater Yellowstone region, but its range extends sporadically west to central Oregon. It is sometimes confused with C. miniata, but differs from that species in its floral dimensions, mostly single-stemmed growth form, primarily white, yellow, or pinkish orange bract coloration, puberulent stems, and weakly rhizomatous habit. Where the two grow in the same general region, there is no clear evidence of hybridization; however, C. cusickii and C. gracillima form an extensive, sporadically intergrading population in the Logan Valley, Grant County, Oregon. Plants attributed to this species from the Rocky Mountain trench near the head of the Columbia River in southeastern British Columbia or adjacent Alberta are a combination of several other species, especially Castilleja lutescens and C. miniata. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja chlorotica is an uncommon to rare endemic on dry slopes in Deschutes, Klamath, Lake, and possibly Crook counties in central Oregon. The hooked corolla beak and greenish bracts, often aging purplish distally, help distinguish it from similar species such as C. glandulifera and yellow forms of C. applegatei var. pinetorum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 611. | FNA vol. 17, p. 594. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 34: 39. (1907) | Piper: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 33: 104. (1920) |
Web links |