INDIAN PAINTBRUSH PLANT RANGE FULL

wightii) with blossoms of solid yellow or red. subinclusa subspecies franciscana) with its two-toned flower of crimson and gold, and the shaggier Wight’s paintbrush (C. In the coastal scrub, keep an eye out for Franciscan paintbrush (C. Here in the Bay Area, stands of purple owl’s clover (Castilleja exserta) rank among our showiest grassland wildflowers, and constitute a primary element for the survival of the federally threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly. Look for Indian paintbrush growing together with bunchgrass, chamise, sagebrush, and wild buckwheat, its favored hosts. This clever freeloader takes water and nutrients from the roots of other plants via furtive finger-like projections of parasitic tissue called haustoria, which grow from the roots of the paintbrush and penetrate the roots of the host plant. The plant’s beauty above ground masks a deviousness below-Indian paintbrush is a partial parasite, unable to thrive alone in the soil.

The bright colors of the paintbrush derive not from its flowers but from bracts, the leaf-like structures around the flowers, which grow shorter, wider, and more lobed toward the top, often with color highlights at the tips.

INDIAN PAINTBRUSH PLANT RANGE FULL

Known botanically as Castilleja, these low-growing blooms of orange, red, or occasionally yellow appear like blazing tufts of pigment across the full spectrum of habitats-from grasslands to coastal bluffs, deserts to vernal pools, lowland bogs to the High Sierra-a testament to nature’s art and design. The April sun rises on a landscape splashed with the colors of spring, and few wildflowers hold the metaphor better than Indian paintbrush.

Indian paintbrush plant range