Castilleja affinis

Indian paintbrush

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Indian paintbrush is a California native perennial found in diverse mountain and coastal habitats across California from low to mid-elevation ranges. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces striking red to yellow flowers with green to dark purple lower lips, creating distinctive colorful bracts. Growing with slender stems 15 to 60 centimeters tall, the plant ranges from green to purplish and features few branches with sparse hair. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate, typically with zero to five thin lobes and rounded tips, creating a delicate structural appearance. The fruit capsules are 10 to 15 millimeters long, containing small seeds with intricately netted seed coats.

California counties: Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Mateo, Napa, San Benito, Fresno, Mendocino, Monterey, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Calaveras, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, Marin, Solano, Humboldt, Butte, Sonoma, Lake, El Dorado, Orange, Riverside, Tulare, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Kern, Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Bernardino, Nevada, Colusa, Glenn, Placer, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Amador, Shasta, Yuba, Siskiyou, Inyo, Mono, Yolo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.