Plant species: Castilleja miniata, scarlet paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots
Family: Scrophulariaceae -- figwort
Genus: Castilleja
Species: miniata
Variety:
Species Code: CAMI12
Common Name: scarlet paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush
Origin: Native to moist meadows, shrub thickets and open forest over much of the more mesic portions of western North America.
Rare: no
Form: forb, perennial, erect to ascending, 30-100 cm tall, glabrous below the inflorescence.
Duration: perennial
Longevity:
Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thicket, forest
Wetland Indicator Status: NOL
Leaves: 3-6 cm long, linear to lanceolate, entire, tapering to a sharp point.
Mature height:
Flowers: borne in a spike which elongates in fruit, 3-23 cm long, hirsute; bracts red or scarlet, usually lobed or cleft but sometimes entire, oblong ovate; calyx 2.5 cm long; corolla 3-3.5 mm long, greenish, 2 lipped; galea 13-16 mm long, puberulent to pubescent.
Flowers color:
Bloom:
Bloom starts on:
Bloom ends on:
Fruit: capsule, 13-17 mm long, ellipsoid; seeds 1.8-2.5 mm long, ovoid, truncate, brown.
Vegetation type:
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 (Hitchcock et al 1969).
Diploids (n=12), tetraploids, octoploids and decaploids occur (Heckard et al 1977).
Flowers are perfect and relatively inconspicuous. The brightly colored bracts below the flower are showy and persistent.
Some native peoples used the plants medicinally and for ceremonial purposes.
Fruit is a capsule.
Of minor forage value to Rocky Mountain elk in summer (Kufeld 1973).
Non-mycorrhizal (Lesica & Antibus 1986).
Herb data:
Comments:
Sun requirement:
Soil moisture:
Precipitation:
Fire: Castilleja miniata is moderately resistant to fire because the taproot is deep enough below mineral soil to afford it some protection (McLean 1969).
Hazards:
Sowing time:
Transplant time:
Stratification: cold moist
Seed yield:
Seed harvest: late June
Seed first harvest:
Seed cleaning: medium
Planting duration: long
Seed insect problem: no
Seed shatter: medium
Seed size: small
Seed harvest date: late June
Seed comments: root parasite; needs host plant
Herbaria:
Key words:
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:
Remarks:
Propagation:
Dry seed stores only 1 year. Needs 1-3 months cold, moist stratification, will germinate at greenhouse temperatures (Rose et al 1998).
Needs 60-120 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).
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) can be used as a host plant (Matthies 1997).
Maguire & Overland (1959) reported no germination for a Castilleja sp. under any treatment applied. They did not stratify the seed.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Notes:
The 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 seem like they would be great landscape plants, they hold their color for a long time (Skinner et al 2005).
Recommended:
References:
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.
Kufeld, Roland. 1973.
Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk.
Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.
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.
Matthies, Diethart. 1997.
Parasite-host Interactions in Castilleja and Orthocarpus.
Canadian Journal of Botany 75:1252-1260.
McLean, Alastair. 1969.
Fire Resistance of Forest Species as Influenced by Root Systems.
Journal of Range Management 22:120-122.
Rose, Robin, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Haase. 1998.
Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.
Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005.
More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation.
Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf
Other 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.
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.
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
Marvier, Michelle A., and David L. Smith. 1997.
Conservation Implications of Host Use for Rare Parasitic Plants.
Conservation Biology 11:839-848.
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