scarlet Indian paintbrush

not listed

NNR - Unranked

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FACU - Facultative upland

FAC - Facultative

FAC - Facultative

Scarlet Indian paintbrush (f. lutescens) is a 5″ to 24″ tall, erect, annual or biennial, hemiparasitic forb that rises on usually a single stem from a taproot rhizome caudex.

In the first year it develops a rosette of basal leaves. In the second year it sends up flowering stems. The stems are ascending to erect, slender, usually unbranched, and covered with short, fine hairs.

Basal leaves are inversely lance-shaped to egg-shaped, unlobed, up to 3¼″ long, and up to ¾″ wide. They are often present at flowering.

Stem leaves are variable in form, linear to lance-shaped, 1¼″ to 3¼″ long, and up to ⅜″ wide. Some leaves are cleft with 3 to 5 linear lobes, the central lobe longer and broader than the lateral lobes. Some leaves are unlobed. The upper surface is hairy. The lower surface is hairy along the veins. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is a dense, yellow, 1½″ to 2⅜″ long spike at the end of the stem. When in fruit the spike is 4″ to 8″ long.

Each flower is subtended by a large leaf-like bract. The bracts are lance-shaped, usually deeply 3-lobed, occasionally 5-lobed, wholly or mostly yellow.

The calyx is ⅝″ to 1″ long, yellowish, and divided into 2 rounded lobes. The corolla is inconspicuous, consisting of 5 petals fused for their entire length into a greenish-yellow tube that is 13 ⁄16″ to 11 ⁄16″ long, slightly longer than the calyx. They are usually at least partially concealed by the colorful bracts.

The fruit is an asymmetrical, egg-shaped, ⅜″ long capsule containing numerous seeds.

5″ to 24″

Greenish-yellow with yellow bracts

Wet to dry. Prairies, meadows.

May to August

Plants in the genus Castilleja are hemiparasitic. They obtain water and mineral nutrients from the roots of grasses and forbs, but are also photosynthetic, producing chlorophyll. Though it can survive on its own, it has a forty-fold increase in growth when it parasitizes the roots of other plants.

Sources

7.

Native

The genus Castilleja, formerly belonging the family Scrophulariaceae (figwort), has recently been transferred to the family Orobanchaceae (broomrape).

Plant

Inflorescence