Castilleja miniata

Great red paintbrush

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Great red paintbrush is a California native perennial found in mountain and foothill regions in alpine meadows, conifer forests, and open woodlands at elevations of 1,000 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces bright red to yellow-red flowers in showy bracts 15 to 35 millimeters long with striking color variations. Growing with erect stems 40 to 80 centimeters tall, often turning purplish and ranging from glabrous to soft-hairy toward the upper portions. Its lance-shaped leaves measure 30 to 60 millimeters long, with acute tips and an entire margin, arranged alternately along the stem. The distinctive flowers feature a yellow-green corolla with red margins and a lower lip barely emerging from bright red bracts, creating a vivid display in mountain habitats.

California counties: Los Angeles, Siskiyou, Mono, Trinity, Fresno, Tuolumne, Tehama, Tulare, Nevada, Madera, Lassen, El Dorado, Alpine, Placer, San Bernardino, Plumas, Del Norte, Butte, Sierra, Ventura, Lake, Shasta, Mariposa, San Luis Obispo, Glenn, Modoc, Inyo, Riverside, San Diego, Humboldt, Colusa, Calaveras, San Benito, Alameda, Kern, Mendocino, San Francisco, Amador

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