Castilleja sessiliflora |
Castilleja gleasoni |
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downy paintedcup, Great Plains Indian paintbrush |
Mount Gleason paintbrush, Mt. Gleason paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1–4 dm; from a branching, woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, 3–8 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. |
Stems | few to many, ascending to erect, often decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, sometimes matted, short to medium length, ± soft, eglandular, often with a layer of minute-glandular hairs, sometimes woolly. |
several to many, erect to ascending, branched, sometimes unbranched, hairs moderately dense, spreading, ± matted, ash gray, branched, sometimes unbranched, medium length, soft, often mixed with shorter, unbranched, stipitate-glandular ones, not obscuring surface. |
Leaves | green to purple, or grayish with dust and hairs, linear to narrowly lanceolate, (1–)2–5(–6) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, involute, (0–)3–5-lobed, apex acuminate to acute; lobes divergent, spreading, linear, apex acute. |
ash gray, linear-lanceolate to narrowly oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, 2–6 cm, not fleshy, margins wavy, involute, 0(–3)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse; lobes spreading, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute to obtuse. |
Inflorescences | 3–18 × 2.5–6.5 cm; bracts green to purplish throughout, sometimes reddish brown, pink, or lavender throughout, or distally white or pale yellow, sometimes distally dull pink, pink, salmon, orangish, pale pink-orange, buff, or cream, lanceolate, similar to distal leaves, 3(–5)-lobed; lobes spreading, linear-lanceolate, long, arising at or below mid length, apex acute to acuminate, sometimes obtuse. |
10–15(–30) cm; bracts proximally greenish to dull brownish purple, distally red to deep red or red-orange, lanceolate to oblong or narrowly ovate, (0–)3(–5)-lobed; lobes ascending to spreading, narrowly oblong to narrowly lanceolate, medium length, arising below mid length, center lobe apex obtuse or toothed, lateral ones acute. |
Corollas | strongly curved distally, 35–55 mm; tube 24–45 mm; abaxial lip, beak, and distal portion of tube exserted; beak adaxially green, yellow, pinkish, purplish, or whitish, 9–15 mm; abaxial lip green, pale green, or purple, protruding, shelflike, 4–8 mm, 50–70% as long as beak; teeth spreading, white, pale yellow, pink, or purple, 3–4 mm. |
± straight, 18–30 mm; tube 9–15 mm; beak exserted, adaxially yellow, 9–15(–20) mm; abaxial lip spreading, deep green to ± black, reduced, 0.5–2 mm, 20% as long as beak; teeth incurved, green, 0.2–1 mm. |
Calyces | colored as bracts, sometimes proximally white, 20–40 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 12–20 mm, 40–60% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 5–15 mm, 10–25% of calyx length; lobes linear, apex acute to acuminate. |
proximally pale to green, sometimes dull purple, often paler or greener than bracts, distal 1/4 or less colored as bract lobes, 12–17 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 3–8 mm, 40% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–3 mm, 20–25% of calyx length; lobes ovate to narrowly triangular, apex obtuse to acute. |
2n | = 24. |
= 72. |
Castilleja sessiliflora |
Castilleja gleasoni |
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Phenology | Flowering (Feb–)Mar–Aug(–Oct). | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Dry mixed grass and shortgrass prairies, prairie sandhills, sandsage plains, sand prairies, rocky or sandy slopes, bluffs, open forests, or desert scrub, limestone, sandstone, gypsum, granite, other bedrock types. | Ledges, rocky slopes, open yellow pine forests, montane chaparral or sagebrush. |
Elevation | 0–2300 m. (0–7500 ft.) | 900–2200 m. (3000–7200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; IA; IL; KS; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WI; WY; AB; MB; SK; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas)
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CA |
Discussion | Castilleja sessiliflora ranges across the Great Plains from southern Canada to northern Mexico, where it is apparently rare. In Texas and northern Mexico, its range overlaps with the similar C. mexicana. Most populations of C. sessiliflora, especially north of Texas, have white to pale yellow inflorescences; in southwestern Texas they are more variable in color, with pink-purple plants often predominating locally. Those plants with pink-purple inflorescences were named forma purpurina by F. W. Pennell. In the limestone deserts of southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, the inflorescences are often a pale pink-orange, but these are intermingled with more typical greenish white plants. Occasional hybrids between C. angustifolia var. dubia and C. sessiliflora are known from northeastern Wyoming. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Castilleja gleasoni is an uncommon plant endemic to the upper elevations of the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County. It was treated as a polyploid derivative of C. affinis var. affinis (as subsp. affinis) × C. foliolosa (T. I. Chuang and L. R. Heckard 1993b), a hypothetical ancestry supported by a chromosome number of 2n = 72. Others have placed it as a subspecies of C. pruinosa, a similar species. However, the morphology of C. gleasoni also suggests it could have originated as a cross between the diploid C. foliolosa and a tetraploid form of C. martini; careful morphological and molecular analyses are needed to determine its true ancestry. Castilleja gleasoni 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. 657. | FNA vol. 17, p. 610. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. pruinosa subsp. gleasoni | |
Name authority | Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 738. (1813) | Elmer: Bot. Gaz. 39: 51. (1905) — (as Castilleia) |
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