Castilleja salsuginosa |
Castilleja mexicana |
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Monte Neva Indian paintbrush, Monte Neva paintbrush |
Mexican Indian paintbrush, Mexican paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, (0.5–)0.8–1.4(–1.8) dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot with yellow root hairs. | Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 0.6–3 dm; from a woody caudex; with a slender taproot. |
Stems | several, erect, usually decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, sometimes with short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs spreading, short, rather stiff, some glandular. |
solitary or few, erect to erect-ascending, sometimes slightly curved at base, branched at base or unbranched, hairs spreading, long, stiff to soft, mixed with shorter stipitate-glandular ones. |
Leaves | 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. |
brown or purplish, sometimes green, linear to narrowly oblong, 1–5 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, mostly involute, to flat, 3–5-lobed, apex acute; lobes spreading, linear, apex acute to obtuse. |
Inflorescences | 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. |
2–17 × 1.5–6.5 cm; bracts greenish throughout, narrowly lanceolate (ovate in outline), 3–5(–7)-lobed; lobes spreading, linear to narrowly oblong, long, arising from 1/3–2/3 blade length, wavy-margined, apex rounded or obtuse to acute. |
Corollas | 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. |
straight proximally, conspicuously decurved distally, 35–60 mm; tube 26–46 mm; abaxial lip, beak, and majority of tube exserted; beak yellow to yellowish green, sometimes purplish tipped or drying pinkish, 9–15 mm; abaxial lip light yellow to whitish, prominent, not inflated, 4–8 mm, 50–75% as long as beak; teeth spreading-ascending, yellowish, 3–6 mm. |
Calyces | 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. |
proximally brownish green, purplish, or green, lobes tipped with same color as bracts, 18–28 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 6–14 mm, 33–50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 1.5–6 mm, 8–20% of calyx length; lobes lanceolate to narrowly triangular, abaxials wider than adaxials, apex acute. |
Stigmas | blackish. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Castilleja salsuginosa |
Castilleja mexicana |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Jul. | Flowering Feb–Oct. |
Habitat | Damp alkaline clay, hummocks, sparsely vegetated stream banks draining hot springs. | Dry rocky slopes, grasslands, pinyon-juniper stands. |
Elevation | 1800–2000 m. (5900–6600 ft.) | 1200–2100 m. (3900–6900 ft.) |
Distribution |
NV |
TX; Mexico (Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas)
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Discussion | 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.) |
Castilleja mexicana occurs in the northern third of Mexico and reaches the flora area only in southwestern Texas. Its conspicuous corollas can be either yellow or, less commonly, white. In both cases, the flowers turn soft pink-purple with age. Texas populations of this species are yellow flowered, and the white-flowered morph appears to occur only in northeastern Mexico. There is some indication of additional morphological differences between these color morphs that may justify varietal segregation. Castilleja mexicana is sometimes confused with the closely related C. sessiliflora, due to their conspicuous, distally curved, usually strongly exserted corollas, but the two species remain distinct. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 654. | FNA vol. 17, p. 626. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Orthocarpus mexicanus, C. tortifolia | |
Name authority | N. H. Holmgren: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 100: 83, fig. 1. (1973) | (Hemsley) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 21: 404. (1886) — (as Castilleia) |
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