Castilleja tenuiflora
Castilleja chrysantha
Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush
Wallowa paintbrush, yellow paintbrush, yellow Wallowa Indian paintbrush, yellowish or common Wallowa paintbrush
few to many, erect or ascending, often decumbent at base, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, long, soft, mixed with dense, shorter stipitate-glandular ones.
green or purple-tinged, sometimes deep purple, broadly lanceolate, sometimes linear-lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 1.5–4.8 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat or involute, 0–3-lobed, apex acute;
lobes ascending or spreading, linear to narrowly linear or narrowly lanceolate, short, apex acuminate.
3–17 × 1–3 cm;
bracts greenish or pale yellow-green throughout, or proximally greenish or pale yellow-green, distally pale yellow to whitish, sometimes pink-purple, or pale, dull purplish, sometimes aging pink or yellow, often infused with light purple, rarely pink, ovate to broadly acute, (0–)3-lobed;
lobes ascending, linear-lanceolate, oblong, or triangular, short, arising below mid length, apex acute to obtuse.
straight, (16–)20–25 mm;
tube 15–18 mm;
beak slightly exserted, adaxially green to yellow, 5.5–8.5 mm;
abaxial lip white, green and white, pink, or purple, ± prominent, appressed (proximally scarcely or not pouched), 3–5 mm, 67% as long as beak;
teeth erect, white or pink with some purple or red, 1.5–2.5 mm.
proximally green, pale with green veins, purple-tinged green, or purple, distally pale yellow, white, or purplish, 12–20 mm;
abaxial and adaxial clefts 8–12 mm, 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–3 mm, 5–15% of calyx length;
lobes short-triangular, apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate.
Castilleja tenuiflora
Castilleja chrysantha
Varieties 3 (1 in the flora).
Castilleja tenuiflora is common and widespread across the mountains of Mexico, especially in pine-oak-madrone communities at middle elevations, as far south as Oaxaca, where it is found west and north of the Tehuantepec lowlands. There are two varieties of C. tenuiflora endemic to Mexico, while the typical variety crosses into the mountains of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. Considerable local and regional variation exists in C. tenuiflora, but most of this appears to be racial in nature, and additional named varieties are likely not justified. While also commonly herbaceous, C. tenuiflora often forms large, multi-stemmed, subshrub plants with a woody base and ascending to strongly erect and often branched stems. It is valued in Mexican traditional medicine and is under study for potentially useful compounds (M. Jiménez et al. 1995; P. M. Sanchez et al. 2013).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Castilleja chrysantha is endemic to the mountains of northeastern Oregon, and its patterns of variation need further study. Most plants in the Blue Mountains are taller, more erect, and tolerate lower elevation habitats than populations around the type locality in the Wallowa Mountains. Plants with purplish inflorescences and longer hairs were described as C. ownbeyana and tend to favor drier talus and ridges than plants like the type, found in flat, mesic, montane to subalpine meadows. Hybrids between C. chrysantha and C. fraterna occur in Wallowa County. In the Wallowa Mountains, a recurrent and variable hybrid form between C. chrysantha and C. rhexiifolia was described as C. wallowensis Pennell.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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