Castilleja gracillima |
Castilleja salsuginosa |
|
---|---|---|
slender Indian paintbrush, slender paintbrush |
Monte Neva Indian paintbrush, Monte Neva paintbrush |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, 2–5.5 dm; from a remote woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, (0.5–)0.8–1.4(–1.8) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot with yellow root hairs. |
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, erect, usually decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, sometimes with short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs spreading, short, rather stiff, some glandular. |
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. |
purplish brown with a grayish cast (due to adhering soil particles and salt crystals), linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1.5–2.5(–3) cm, fleshy, margins plane, sometimes wavy, involute, 0–3(–5)-lobed, apex acute; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly lanceolate, apex 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. |
3–10 × 1.5–5 cm; bracts proximally purplish, deep burgundy, lavender, dull reddish, or deep purple, distally greenish, white, cream, or pink on margins and apices, oblong, 3(–5)-lobed; lobes ascending, ± linear, medium length, arising above mid length, central lobe apex rounded to obtuse, expanded distally, lateral ones 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. |
straight or slightly curved, 18–22(–24) mm; tube 13–18 mm; beak, sometimes abaxial lip, exserted; beak adaxially purplish brown, 4.5–6.5 mm, conspicuously exceeding abaxial lip, margins reddish or colored as bracts, apices white or cream; abaxial lip reddish purple with green in a distal band or along grooves, gradually inflated, grooved, (2–)3–4(–4.5) mm, 67% as long as beak; teeth erect to slightly spreading, white to cream, often with purple spot, 1.4–2(–2.5) 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). |
proximally whitish, distally purple to sometimes pink, margins white or cream, 16–20 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5–8.5 mm, 20–45% of calyx length, all 4 clefts subequal; lobes linear or narrowly lanceolate, apex obtuse to rounded. |
Stigmas | blackish. |
|
2n | = 48. |
= 24. |
Castilleja gracillima |
Castilleja salsuginosa |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Aug. | Flowering Jun–Jul. |
Habitat | Mesic or wet, usually flat meadows, sometimes near hot springs, along stream banks, montane. | Damp alkaline clay, hummocks, sparsely vegetated stream banks draining hot springs. |
Elevation | 1600–2500 m. (5200–8200 ft.) | 1800–2000 m. (5900–6600 ft.) |
Distribution |
ID; MT; OR; WY
|
NV |
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 salsuginosa is endemic to a single site in White Pine County, where it is limited to the harsh alkaline soils of travertine hot springs. This population is threatened by habitat degradation from livestock, as well as by water developments affecting the hydrology of the hot spring system. Castilleja salsuginosa is closely related to C. nana and C. pilosa, but genetic studies of the trio are inconclusive so far. Two populations of very similar but slightly smaller-flowered plants occur around other hot springs in adjacent Eureka County. While they resemble C. salsuginosa superficially, recent morphometric studies of one of these populations indicate that they may be worthy of nomenclatural recognition, separate from C. salsuginosa. Castilleja salsuginosa is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 611. | FNA vol. 17, p. 654. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 34: 39. (1907) | N. H. Holmgren: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 100: 83, fig. 1. (1973) |
Web links |