Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Downy Painted-cup
Castilleja sessiliflora
Broomrape/Paintbrush family (Orobanchaceae)

Downy Painted-Cup, like all paintbrush, is partially . Host plants include grasses and various wildflowers. Flowers of paintbrush are long, very narrow tubes inconspicuously hidden in foliage. The shape of the floral tube and the color of the are keys to identifying paintbrush species.

The name, "Castilleja," honors Domingo Castillejo (1744-1793), Spanish botanist and Professor of Botany in Cadiz, Spain.


©2010 Judy McBride

Description

, semi- plants to 12" tall. Several stems, finely hairy. Leaves 1" long, , and . Upper often with . 3-, tinged with green, yellow, or red, hairy, and shorter than the long, narrow flowers. almost 1" long, green to yellow, 3- on lower lip. a .

Field Marks

Hairy, short, variably colored; thick foliage.

© Al Schneider

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

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

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

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

A parasitic plant derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

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.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.