''Castilleja affinis'' is a species of ''

Castilleja ''Castilleja'', commonly known as paintbrush, Indian paintbrush, or prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of Annual plant, annual and Perennial plant, perennial mostly herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska sout ...

'' known by the common name coast Indian paintbrush. It is native to western North America from

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, where it grows on hills and mountains slopes along the coast and inland.

Description

This is a perennial herb growing an erect stem up to about 60 centimeters (24 in.) in maximum height. It is greenish to purple in color and may be hairless to quite hairy. The leaves are variable in shape and up to 8 centimeters long. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a series of

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s in shades of bright red to yellowish. Flowers appearing between the bracts are a bit longer and covered in hairs. They are green to purple lined with red or yellow. The fruit is a capsule just over a centimeter long.

Subspecies

There are three subspecies of this plant, two of which are rare:

References

External links

*
Jepson Manual Treatment: ''Castilleja affinis''''Castilleja affinis'' — U.C. Photo gallery
affinis Flora of Baja California Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of Washington (state) Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Channel Islands of California Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Orobanchaceae-stub