Castilleja ornata |
Castilleja affinis |
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glowing Indian paintbrush, ornate paintbrush |
California paintbrush, coast Indian paintbrush, coast paintbrush, Indian paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, 1.7–3.5(–5) dm; with a thin taproot or fibrous root system. | Herbs, perennial, 1.4–6 dm; caudex woody; with a taproot. | ||||||||
Stems | solitary or few to several, erect or ascending, often branched low on stem, unbranched distally, hairs appressed or retrorse, medium length, soft, eglandular, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
few to many, erect to ascending, unbranched or branched at proximal nodes, sometimes with short, leafy axillary branches, hairs sparse to dense, spreading, short and long, soft to stiff, unbranched, sometimes branched, eglandular, sometimes stipitate-glandular. |
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Leaves | green or purple-tinged, proximal forming a rosette, linear-lanceolate to oblong or oblanceolate, 2–4 cm, not fleshy, clasping, margins wavy, sometimes plane, involute, 0-lobed, apex acuminate, acute, or obtuse. |
green or purplish, sometimes red-brown, linear or linear-oblong to broadly lanceolate, 2–13 cm, not or ± fleshy, margins wavy or plane, flat or involute, 0–5-lobed, sometimes with small secondary lobes, short, leafy axillary shoots common, usually conspicuous, apex acuminate or acute to rounded; lobes spreading, linear to lanceolate, lateral lobes almost as wide as mid blade, apex acute to rounded. |
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Inflorescences | 3–24 × 1.5–3 cm; bracts proximally green, distally white, sometimes very pale yellow, often aging dull pink or dull red-purple, spatulate, 0-lobed, sometimes seeming lobed due to wavy margins, apex obtuse to rounded. |
3–25(–30) × 1.5–5 cm; bracts proximally green or deep purple, distally red, crimson, scarlet, pink, pinkish purple, pinkish red, or yellow, sometimes rose magenta, red-orange, or orange, oblanceolate or obovate to oblong or lanceolate, (0–)3–5(–7)-lobed; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to obovate, long, proximal lobes at or arising below mid length, apices acute to obtuse, center lobe sometimes rounded. |
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Pedicels | 0 mm or nearly so. |
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Corollas | slightly curved, 22–24 mm; tube 10–13 mm; beak exserted, adaxially green, 5–10 mm; abaxial lip pale greenish, reduced, pouches 3, 0.5–1.5 mm, 5–10% as long as beak; teeth slightly incurved, reduced, pale greenish to white, 0.3–0.7 mm. |
straight or ± curved, 17–40 mm; tube 10–15 mm; beak long-exserted to subequal to calyx, adaxially green, 7–20 mm, puberulent, eglandular; abaxial lip deep green to reddish, brown, or deep purple, reduced, inconspicuous, included in calyx, 1.5–3 mm, 15–25% as long as beak; teeth ascending, green, 0.5–2 mm. |
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Calyces | green throughout or distal margin white aging pink, 15–17 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–14 mm, 35–45% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0(–0.7) mm, 0(–5)% of calyx length; lobes short-triangular, abaxial segments longer than adaxials, apex acute to obtuse or rounded. |
proximally pale or green, distally as in distal portion of bracts, 14–35 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–22 mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 2–7 mm, 15–25% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate or oblong, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, sometimes curved upward. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 48, 72, 96. |
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Castilleja ornata |
Castilleja affinis |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Sep. | |||||||||
Habitat | Seasonally damp ground, dry or sandy grasslands. | |||||||||
Elevation | 1500–2100 m. (4900–6900 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
NM; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango) |
CA; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Castilleja ornata is known from Chihuahua and northern Durango, Mexico, but much of its seasonally moist grassland habitat is now altered by grazing or agriculture, and there are no recent sightings of the species south of the United States border. There is a recently discovered population in southwestern New Mexico, in the southern Animas Valley of Hidalgo County. While very rare, C. ornata lacks federal protection. The small Animas Valley population is the last known extant occurrence, and this population was reduced to two individuals in a census conducted in 2017 (D. Roth, pers. comm.). The species appears to be critically endangered globally and in need of conservation management. The inflorescences of Castilleja ornata have pale greenish bracts with white apices when young, but the apices often become pale pink to dull reddish with age. Its pubescence, wavy-margined leaves, and unusual bract color also distinguish C. ornata. Castilleja exserta and C. minor are the only other annual paintbrushes in New Mexico and differ from C. ornata by the color of their floral bract apices, which are usually pink to red-purple in C. exserta and bright red in C. minor. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Castilleja affinis is highly variable and one of the more common paintbrushes at lower elevations in California, west of the Sierra Nevada, from the northern coast south to northern Baja California. Some recent authors (for example, M. Wetherwax et al. 2012) include C. litoralis of the Pacific Northwest coast as a subspecies of C. affinis, but due to the high polyploid nature of C. litoralis and its significantly closer morphological resemblance to C. miniata var. dixonii, that treatment is not followed here. Also see the comments under 62. C. litoralis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 636. | FNA vol. 17, p. 582. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||
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Name authority | Eastwood: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 44: 571. (1909) | Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 154. (1833) | ||||||||
Web links |