This relationship does not kill the host. Unlike a true parasitic plant, hemi-parasites are capable of manufacturing their own food and obtaining water and nutrients from soil, but they also form specialized roots known as haustoria roots that attach to the roots of a host plant, thereby providing additional water uptake for the paintbrush plant and possibly some organic and inorganic nutrients. Paintbrush species, as well as some other genera in the figwort family (Scrophulariaceae), have a unique biology known as hemi-parasitism. The rich, brilliant, prolonged color of these species is one reason why they are some of the most desired native species for the home landscape, yet they are not widely available for sale as container plants because of their interesting biology. Because the floral bracts make up most of the color, they tend to remain showy for several weeks through the growing season. It is not unusual to find a single flower with up to 3 contrasting colors on the showy bracts. The flower and bract color, even within a single species, can range wildly across the color palette from rich reds, scarlet, and fuchsia to orange, salmon, pink, yellow, and cream. Both insects and hummingbirds are attracted to these plants and serve as pollinators. Indian paintbrush is appropriately named as the bracts graduate in color from green leafy stems to the brightly colored tops of the inflorescence, thus giving the appearance that the tops of the plants have been dipped in paint. The inflorescence is a short or elongate terminal spike bearing tubular-shaped flowers that are subtended by numerous colorful bracts. They are found in a wide range of habitats, ranging from low elevation wetlands and riparian areas to dry grasslands, steppe-shrub communities, and rocky slopes to mid- to high elevation mountain meadows and slopes. There are more than 150 species and many freely hybridize with one another in areas where their ranges overlap. The majority of species grow in the West, but a few species occur in the central portion of the US. ) is a vibrant, beautiful genus of annual, biennial, and perennial wildflowers that are found exclusively in North America. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Castilleja is a hemi-parasite, meaning that it derives some of its nutrients from a host plant. neglecta (Tiburon paintbrush) is known from only a few occurrences in and around the San Francisco Bay Area and is a federally listed endangered species. littoralis (Oregon Coast paintbrush) grows on the coastline of northern California and Oregon and ssp. affinins (Coast Indian painbrush) occurs commonly throughout western North America from Washington to Baja California. There are three subspecies of this plant (ssp. The fruit is a capsule just over a centimeter long. They are green to purple lined with red or yellow. Flowers appearing between the leafs are a bit longer and covered in hairs. The flower cluster is a series of leafs in shades of bright red to yellowish. The leaves are variable in shape and up to 8 centimeters long. It is greenish to purple in color and may be hairless to quite hairy. This is a perennial herb growing an erect stem up to about 60 centimeters in maximum height. Indian Paintbrush is a species native to western North America from Washington to Baja California, where it grows on hills and mountains slopes along the coast and inland. About Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis) 0 Nurseries Carry This Plant
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