Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots

Family: Scrophulariaceae -- figwort

Common Name: stiff yellow paintbrush

Species Code: CALU14

Origin: Native to open grasslands and open forest of southern British Columbia, extreme eastern Washington, northeast Oregon, northern Idaho and western Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a somewhat woody caudex, 30-60 cm tall, erect, stems often branched, hirsute and puberulent.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: alternate, 3-7 cm long; mostly entire; upper leaves sometimes with 2-4 short lobes.

Mature height: 10-20 inches

Flowers: borne in a spike 5-15 cm long; bracts oblong rounded, tips yellow, puberulent, often with 3-7 lobes or rarely entire; calyx 15-25 mm, deeply cleft, the lobes again divided; corolla 3-3.5 mm long, greenish; galea 13-16 mm long.

Flower color: bracts are yellow, actual corolla is green

Bloom: April, May

Fruit: capsule, 13-17 mm long, ellipsoid; seeds 1.8-2.5 mm long, ovoid, brown.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Members of Castilleja are hemiparasites. They are capable of growing without a host but thrive when able to parasitize the roots of another plant. This probably also extends their ecological amplitude. They seem to have a wide range of host species, some more suitable than others.
n=24. Tetraploid, octoploids and decaploids are known, and make some specimens difficult to identify (Heckard & Chuang 1977).
Fruit is a capsule.
Flowers are perfect and relatively inconspicuous. The brightly colored bracts below the flower are showy and persistent.
Non-mycorrhizal (Lesica & Antibus 1986).

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: medium

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: late June

Seed comments: root parasite; needs host plant

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: parasitic, upland

Propagation:
Maguire and Overland (1959) reported no germination for a Castilleja sp. under any treatment applied. They did not stratify the seed.
Needs 60-90 days cold moist stratification, then grow at 21-25 ^oC during the day and 10-16 ^oC at night. Pair with a host at 4-6 weeks. Host should be low growing and non-aggressive (Luna 2005).
The coastal C. levisecta can be propagated vegetatively in the fall from crown shoots. Other Castilleja species also produce similar shoots (Guppy 2001).
Most species will germinate after 1-4 months of cold moist stratification (Guppy 1997).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Castilleja lutescens and the other locally native paintbrushes in general are tricky to germinate on a consistent basis and they need to be planted with a host, since they are parasitic on the roots of other plants. Seeds generally need 60-90 days of stratification. The paintbrushes should be great landscape plants, they hold their color for a long time (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Adler, Lynn S. 2002. Host Effects on Herbivory and Pollination in a Hemiparasitic Plant. Ecology 83:2700-2710.

Adler, Lynn S. 2003. Host Species Affects Herbivory, Pollination, and Reproduction in Experiments with Parasitic Castilleja. Ecology 84:2083-2091.

Borland, Jim. 1994. Growing Indian Paintbrush. American Nurseryman 179(6):59-53. Mar. 15, 1994.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown. 827 pp.

Guppy, Art. 1997. Cultivation of Castilleja. BEN, Botanical Electronic News. No 156. Online at http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben156.html

Guppy, Art. 2001. Vegetative Propagation of Castilleja. BEN, Botanical Electronic News No 269. Online at http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben269.html

Heckard, L.R. 1962. Root Parasitism in Castilleja. Botanical Gazette 124: 21-29.

Heckard, Lawrence R. and Tsani-Iang Chuang. 1977. Chromosome Numbers, Polyploidy, and Hybridization in Castilleja (Scrophulariaceae) of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountains. Brittonia 29:159-172.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. 5 vol.

Kaye, T.N. 2001. Restoration Research for Golden Paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta), a Threatened Species. Corvallis, OR: Institute for Applied Ecology. Online at http://www.appliedeco.org/Reports/Cale_research.PDF

Lesica, P., and R.K. Antibus. 1986. Mycorrhizal Status of Hemiparasitic Vascular Plants in Montana, U.S.A. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 86:341-343.

Luna, Tara. 2005. Propagation Protocol for Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja species. Native Plants Journal 6(1):62-68.

Maguire, James D., and Alvin Overland. 1959. Laboratory Germination of Seeds of Weedy and Native Plants. Pullman, WA: Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station. Circular 349. 15 p.

Marvier, Michelle A., and David L. Smith. 1997. Conservation Implications of Host Use for Rare Parasitic Plants. Conservation Biology 11:839-848.

Matthies, Diethart. 1997. Parasite-host Interactions in Castilleja and Orthocarpus. Canadian Journal of Botany 75:1252-1260.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 p.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Escondido, CA: Outdoor Pictures.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database. Baton Rouge, LA: National Plant Data Center. http://plants.usda.gov, 28 July 2009.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium