Castilleja salsuginosa
Castilleja pallida
Monte Neva Indian paintbrush, Monte Neva paintbrush
pale paintbrush
several, erect, usually decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, sometimes with short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs spreading, short, rather stiff, some glandular.
few to many, erect or ascending, unbranched or branched, glabrate proximally or hairy, hairs usually spreading to weakly appressed, whitish or yellowish, short to long, stiff to ± soft, eglandular to rarely stipitate-glandular.
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.
green to red-brown or deep purple, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or linear, (1.5–)5–10.5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, sometimes ± wavy, flat to involute, 0-lobed, sometimes 3–5-lobed distally immediately below inflorescence, apex acuminate, caudate, or acute, sometimes obtuse;
lobes ascending-spreading, linear to narrowly lanceolate, sometimes with earlike appendages, short, apex acute to obtuse.
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.
2–16 × 1–2.5 cm;
bracts yellow, yellow-green, or pale whitish throughout, sometimes with dull reddish-purplish wash proximally, especially with age, proximal few lanceolate, most broadly lanceolate to ovate or lanceolate to oblong, 0–5(–7)-lobed, sometimes central lobe with a few small teeth;
lobes ascending to erect, linear, sometimes expanded distally, short, arising near or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse to rounded or truncate, lateral ones acute to obtuse.
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 or slightly curved, 12–26(–28) mm;
tube 10–20 mm;
abaxial lip sometimes exserted, beak usually exserted;
beak adaxially green to yellowish, 3.5–8 mm;
abaxial lip proximally green or purple, distally white, purple, yellow to greenish yellow, cream, orange-brown, or reddish, ± inconspicuous, slightly to moderately pouched, 3–6 mm, 50–75% as long as beak;
teeth erect to curved, white, cream, or yellow, (0.8–)1.2–2 mm.
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 pale green, red-brown, or purple, distally colored as bracts, 12–18.5 mm;
abaxial clefts 6–9 mm, adaxial 6–12.1 mm, clefts 45–60% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.3–4(–7) mm, 2–40% of calyx length;
lobes linear or triangular to ovoid, apex acute to obtuse or rounded.
blackish.
= 24.
= 48, 72.
Castilleja salsuginosa
Castilleja pallida
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.)
Varieties 6 (2 in the flora).
Castilleja pallida as interpreted here is one of the most wide-ranging species in the genus, extending from the Kola Peninsula of the western Palearctic eastward across arctic and boreal Asia to similar latitudes in the western Nearctic region. Accounts of this species in the eastern Nearctic and farther south in North America are here attributed to C. septentrionalis, which the authors regard as a separate species. Throughout its enormous range, C. pallida is extremely complex, with several levels of polyploidy documented and numerous localized races of highly variable and inconstant forms. On the other hand, some plants from as far west as the arctic Ural Mountains are virtually identical in morphology to plants of var. caudata in central Alaska. Castilleja pallida is treated differently in regional floras, as one highly variable species or as a complex of numerous species, with or without infraspecific taxa. Despite some recent collections, C. pallida remains an incompletely known entity, and a fairly conservative approach to its delimitation is preferred until its variations and relationships to closely related species such as C. elegans and C. raupii, as well as to the numerous named forms in the Palearctic, are understood. Access to critical type material from Russian herbaria remains problematic as well. A full examination of types and a comprehensive genetic and morphological survey of specimens across the range are needed for a satisfactory treatment of the C. pallida complex.
Only vars. caudata and yukonis in North America are accepted tentatively here, yet it is possible that var. pallida or another east-Asian form occurs in the general area of Nome, Alaska. Some collections from northwestern Alaska appear to be distinct from var. caudata, but their precise identity is not established. Even the morphological boundaries between vars. caudata and yukonis are problematic and variable, especially in the Kluane Lake region of the southern Yukon and adjacent Alaska, as well as in other regions where the two come in contact. The type of Castilleja annua consists of poor material, and the description is based on plastic traits, so here it is treated as a synonym of var. caudata. However, additional research may yield better characters and a rationale to distinguish it.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Lateral calyx clefts (1.5–)3–4(–7) mm, lobes linear, sometimes triangular; leaves lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, rarely linear; stems glabrate or hairy. | var. caudata |
1. Lateral calyx clefts 0.3–2(–4) mm, lobes triangular to ovoid; leaves linear to linear-lanceolate; stems hairy. | var. yukonis |
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