Castilleja gracillima
Castilleja tenuiflora
slender Indian paintbrush, slender paintbrush
Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush
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.
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.
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.
± 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.
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).
= 48.
Castilleja gracillima
Castilleja tenuiflora
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.)
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.)
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
