Castilleja sessiliflora |
Castilleja miniata |
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downy paintedcup, Great Plains Indian paintbrush |
common paintbrush, common red paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush, great red paintbrush, scarlet Indian paintbrush, scarlet or common or giant red paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1–4 dm; from a branching, woody caudex; with a taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 1.2–8(–10) dm; from a woody caudex (or slender rooting rhizomes in var. dixonii, var. miniata); with a taproot or with slender, branched roots from a rhizome. | ||||||||||||
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. |
few to many, erect to ascending, rarely proximally decumbent or creeping and rooting at nodes, usually branched, glabrous, glabrate, or hairy, hairs spreading to ± retrorse, short to long, soft to stiff, rarely stipitate-glandular. |
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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. |
green to purple, linear to lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, narrowly oblong, or ovate, (1.5–)3–8(–9.5) cm, thin and not fleshy or slightly to moderately thickened and slightly fleshy, margins plane, rarely wavy, flat to involute, whole leaf sometimes recurved downward, 0(–5)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes rounded; lobes ascending-spreading, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute. |
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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. |
3–15(–22) × 1.5–5.5 cm, often bearing a thin, white, powdery exudate, especially on bract surfaces; bracts greenish, scarlet, red, red-orange, or pale orange throughout, sometimes pink, magenta, pink-purple, yellow, greenish yellow, white, or salmon throughout, or proximally greenish, distally colored as above, lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 0–5(–7)-lobed, central lobes sometimes distally apiculate; lobes erect, linear to lanceolate, oblong, or oblanceolate, short or medium length, arising near or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate, lateral ones rounded to acute or acuminate. |
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Pedicels | 0–5 mm. |
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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. |
slightly curved, 20–48 mm; tube 12–26 mm; abaxial lip usually not exserted, though often visible in front calyx cleft, beak partially to fully exserted; beak adaxially green to yellow-green or whitish, (9–)14–25 mm; abaxial lip incurved or ascending, deep green or green, sometimes deep purple or yellowish, reduced, not inflated, visible in front cleft, 0.5–3.5 mm, 5–20% as long as beak (to ca. 33% as long as beak in some populations of var. miniata); teeth incurved or erect, green or white, 0.7–1.5 mm. |
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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. |
colored as bracts, 15–38 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–24 mm, 35–70% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (1–)3–8(–12) mm, 5–30% of calyx length; lobes linear or narrowly lanceolate to narrowly triangular, apex acute to acuminate or obtuse. |
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2n | = 24. |
= 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
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Castilleja sessiliflora |
Castilleja miniata |
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Phenology | Flowering (Feb–)Mar–Aug(–Oct). | |||||||||||||
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. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–2300 m. (0–7500 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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AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; nw Mexico
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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.) |
Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Castilleja miniata is widely recognized as the common scarlet paintbrush. It is highly variable and has five levels of polyploidy. Nonetheless, it remains fairly well defined morphologically across its wide range. Native Americans use it medicinally. A probable hybrid with C. septentrionalis from southern Nevada was named C. ×porterae Cockerell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 657. | FNA vol. 17, p. 627. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 738. (1813) | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | ||||||||||||
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