Castilleja applegatei

Pine indian paintbrush

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pine indian paintbrush is a California native perennial found in mountain and foothill regions with diverse conifer and open woodland habitats at elevations of 1,500 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces bright red to yellow-tinged flowers in dense bracts 15 to 25 millimeters long with distinctive wavy-margined appearance. Growing with few-branched green stems 20 to 70 centimeters tall, the plant is covered in short glandular and long non-glandular hairs that give it a sticky, textured surface. Its lanceolate leaves are generally wavy-edged, ranging 20 to 70 millimeters in length, with a variable green coloration. The fruits are elongated capsules 8 to 15 millimeters long, containing small seeds with a distinctive ladder-like surface coating.

California counties: Mendocino, San Bernardino, Tulare, Mono, El Dorado, Tuolumne, Los Angeles, Trinity, Plumas, Shasta, Del Norte, Nevada, Kern, Inyo, Riverside, Butte, San Diego, Amador, Alpine, Sierra, Siskiyou, Modoc, Colusa, Fresno, Mariposa, Lassen, Placer, Ventura, Tehama, Lake, Humboldt, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Madera, Napa, Yuba, Calaveras, Yolo, Marin

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