Castilleja lemmonii

Lemmon's indian paintbrush

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Lemmon's indian paintbrush is a California native perennial found in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains and Cascade Range in moist meadows at elevations of 1,550 to 3,700 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces pale yellow and yellow-green flowers with purple-red bracts and white or purple-tinged teeth, creating a vibrant display in alpine meadows. Growing with slender stems 10 to 20 centimeters tall, it remains generally unbranched and spreads with fine hairs and glandular texture. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate, measuring 20 to 40 millimeters long with zero to three narrow lobes. The small seed capsules are 7 to 9 millimeters long, with seeds featuring a delicate, loose-fitting netted coat.

Habitat: Moist meadows

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 1550-3700 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH.

California counties: Tulare, Fresno, Tuolumne, Mono, Madera, Mariposa, El Dorado, Shasta, Inyo, Sierra, Nevada, Tehama, Lassen, Alpine, Placer, Plumas

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