Castilleja integra

Castilleja integra A. Gray var. integra

Wholeleaf Indian Paintbrush

Castilleja, the paintbrush genus, is getting a new family. They’ve been in Scropulariaceae, the snapdragon family, but DNA tests show there was a mixup at birth. Castilleja fits in better with Orobanchaceae, the broomrape family.

Castilleja integra A. Gray var. Integra is a species that is native to and grows in central and southern Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The species name integra differentiates it from others in the Castilleja genus. It means “whole” in latin and refers to C. integra’s leaves and bracts, which are usually entire. The leaves and bracts of most other species of Castilleja have lobes. (C. integra bracts occasionally have lobes, just to keep things interesting).

The infraspecific name, var. Integra, differentiates the plant from another variation, Castilleja integra var. gloriosa , which grows in one county in Arizona.

The plants are perennial and can grow to 16 inches.

You can find it growing from 5,000 feet to more than 10,000 feet. The flower from early spring to fall.

It has one to a few erect stems that grow from a woody root. The stems are covered with small, white hairs and topped with bright red to orange spikes.

The most showy and obvious parts of the plant are the bright red to orange bracts that subtend the flower, growing around and beyond the calyx and corolla. The bracts are usually entire (but sometimes 3-lobed), pubescent and green at the bottom turning red to orange about halfway up.

Inside the bracts, and slightly shorter, are red to orange sepals.

The corolla is green and fused into a tube. It often sticks out beyond the sepals.

Growth form: Forb/herb, subshrub (vascular plant less than 1 ½ feet tall); suffrutescent (woody or shrubby at base); stems more or less tomentose (soft, dense, short, sometimes matted hairs on leave and other parts) pubescence (downy short, soft, erect hairs); leafy, mostly erect (perpendicular to the ground), one to several stems per plant.

He leaves are about 2 ½ inches long. They’re green, sessile, alternate, simple, entire, and linear. The upper surface of the blade is glabrous (or nearly) and the lower side is tomentose, with soft, dense hairs.

C. integra is a bit parasitic. Its roots reach out to the roots of other plants, then tap into them and suck out some nutrients.

The flowers are bilateral

“Asa Gray named and described this species in 1858 from a specimen collected by Wright and Bigelow in 1852 near El Paso, Texas.”