Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Sulphur Indian Paintbrush
Castilleja septentrionalis
Broomrape/Paintbrush family (Orobanchaceae)

This delicately colored paintbrush ranges from a light yellow to yellow/white. Sulphur Paintbrush is taller (growing to 15 inches) than its cousin Western Paintbrush (Castilleja occidentalis) (growing to 8 inches). The range of the two also helps identify the two: Western Paintbrush grows above timberline and Northern Paintbrush grows below. C. septentrionalis hybridizes with the gorgeous iridescent Rose Paintbrush, C. rhexifolia, producing exotic variants of rose-pink/lavender/yellow paintbrush.

Per Axel Rydberg named this species in 1900 from a specimen collected by Rydberg and Bessey in Yellowstone National Park in 1897.


© Mary Ellen (Mel) Harte, Bugwood.org

Description

plants with stems to 18" tall, usually below, hairy and somewhat sticky above, erect , more or less clustered. Leaves to 2" long, to , 3-5-, or nearly so, or rarely upper leaves 3- at . short, yellow. broad, usually as long as the flowers or longer, entire or commonly with short , hairy, yellow. about 1" long. a .

Field Marks

Very light yellow to almost white hide the very slender flower at the top of a leafy stem.

© Al Schneider

nerves -- Another name for a vein.

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

The apex is the tip or the furthest point from the attachment.

lateral -- attached to the side of an organ, for instance leaves or branches on a stem.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

linear-lanceolate -- Elongate and exceedingly narrow with the sides more or less straight but gradually becomming broader near the base.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

alpine -- above the tree line. Thin soil, rocks, short growing season, frost, winter snow.