Castilleja montigena

Heckard's paintbrush

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Heckard's paintbrush is a rare California native perennial ranked 4.3 by CNPS, found in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains on dry, rocky, open slopes and flats in open forest and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 1,800 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces red to orange flowers in shaggy-haired inflorescences with bracts tipped in vibrant colors. Growing with branching stems 15 to 45 centimeters tall, it has a gray-green appearance with glandular-puberulent texture throughout. Its leaves are 2 to 5.5 centimeters long, lanceolate to lance-linear, occasionally with wavy margins and narrow-triangular lobes up to 1 centimeter long. The flowers feature a distinctive red calyx and pale green-yellow corolla with a long beak extending twice the length of the flower tube.

Habitat: Dry, rocky, open slopes and flats in open forest, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1800-2900 m

Bioregions: e SnBr.

California counties: San Bernardino

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