Castilleja linariifolia

Desert paintbursh

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Desert paintbrush is a California native perennial found in the northeastern California Mountains, eastern Sierra Nevada, Transverse Ranges, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions in dry plains, rocky slopes, and sagebrush scrub or pinyon and juniper woodland at elevations of 1,000 to 3,350 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces bright red to yellow flowers with yellow-green corollas and red margins, nestled among narrow bracts up to 30 millimeters long. Growing 30 to 100 centimeters tall with few branches, the plant transitions from yellow-green to purplish stems that are glabrous or slightly hairy. Its linear leaves have narrow margins folded upward, ranging 20 to 80 millimeters in length with occasional small lobes. The distinctive flowers feature a calyx 20 to 35 millimeters long, with curved upward lobes and a lower lip just 2 to 3 millimeters dark green.

Habitat: Dry plains, rocky slopes, sagebrush scrub or pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 1000-3350 m

Bioregions: CaR, e slope SNH, TR, GB, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Ventura, Kern, Inyo, Tuolumne, Mono, Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, Alpine, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Plumas, Alameda, Butte, Nevada, El Dorado

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