Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja praeterita |
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Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush, Santa Catalina paintbrush |
Salmon Creek Indian paintbrush, Salmon Creek paintbrush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, (1–)1.6–4.5 dm; from a woody caudex; with a taproot. | |
Stems | several to many, ascending to erect, ± decumbent at base, branched or unbranched, sometimes with short, leafy axillary shoots, hairs spreading to ascending, long, soft to ± stiff, mixed with short-eglandular ones. |
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Leaves | purple or green, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3–5 cm, not fleshy, margins plane, partly involute, 3–5-lobed, apex acuminate, acute, or rounded; lobes sometimes divergent, spreading-ascending, linear, apex obtuse to rounded. |
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Inflorescences | (2.5–)5–15 × 1.5–2 cm; bracts proximally green to dull purplish, distally pale reddish purple, dull red, pale salmon, pale orange, or bright to pale yellow, oblong, 3(–5)-lobed; lobes spreading to ascending, linear to oblanceolate, distal pair, if present, short and toothlike, short to long, arising at or above mid length, center lobe apex rounded to truncate, lateral lobes obtuse to rounded. |
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Corollas | straight, 11–16 mm; tube 10–13 mm; beak included or tip exserted; beak adaxially green, 4–5 mm; abaxial lip deep green, reduced, with narrow pouches, 2.5–3 mm, 30–45% as long as beak; teeth reduced to minute apiculations, dark green, 0.5–1 mm. |
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Calyces | proximally usually whitish, distally colored as bracts, 13–18 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 5–6(–9) mm, ca. 50% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral 0.5–1.2 mm, ca. 18% of calyx length; lobes ± hemispheric, segments often curved outwards, exposing corollas, apex rounded to obtuse, rarely acute. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Castilleja tenuiflora |
Castilleja praeterita |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | |
Habitat | Dry gravelly meadows and flats, with Artemisia rothrockii, often over granite. | |
Elevation | 2200–3400 m. (7200–11200 ft.) | |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
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CA
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Discussion | 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 praeterita is endemic to subalpine, sagebrush-dominated meadows in the southeastern Sierra Nevada of Inyo and Tulare counties. It is closely associated with and likely parasitic on Artemisia rothrockii. Inflorescence coloration varies by population, with some having only yellow-bracted plants, while others are pale orange to pale red with occasional pale yellow variants. Yet other populations have only pale salmon-colored bracts. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 659. | FNA vol. 17, p. 646. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 22. (1839) | Heckard & Bacigalupi: Madroño 20: 209, fig. 1. (1970) |
Web links |