Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

INDIAN PAINTBRUSH

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Castilleja coccinea (L. ) Spreng.

Neosho County, Kansas

Annual or biennial

Height: 6 - 24 inches

Family: Scrophulariaceae - Figwort Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

Painted cup.

Stems:

Ascending to erect, usually solitary, simple or sometimes branched, short-hairy.

Leaves:

Alternate, sessile; basal rosette leaves oblanceolate to egg-shaped, entire, often persisting until flowering; principal stem leaves lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1.2 to 3.2 inches long, entire to commonly 3-7-cleft; segments linear or oblong, tips blunt or rounded, terminal segment usually largest.

Inflorescences:

Spike, dense, bright red, reddish-orange, or occasionally yellow or white, 1.6 to 2.4 inches long, elongating to 4 to 8 inches in fruit, terminal.

Flowers:

Bracts subtending flowers prominent, lanceolate, deeply 3-5-lobed, lobe tips blunt to rounded, often more brightly colored than flowers; calyces scarlet, 3/5 to 1 inch long, deeply divided into 2 broad, rounded lateral lobes; corollas 2-lipped, greenish-yellow, slightly longer than calyx; upper lip beak-like, erect, straight, 1/3 to 2/5 inch long, lower lip well developed, less than 1/3 as long as upper lip; stamens 4, ascending under upper lip.

Fruits:

Capsule, asymmetrical, egg-shaped, 1/3 to 2/5 inch long; seeds numerous, small, angular.

Habitat:

Moist prairies, hay meadows, thickets, open moist woods, roadside ditches, and wet ground along streams; damp sandy soil.

Distribution:

East 1/6 of Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans used an infusion of flowers to treat colds and would use the plant as a love charm by hiding it on the person who was the object of their infatuation.

Comments:

Indian paintbrush often produces only a basal rosette the first year and a flowering stem the second year. Indian paintbrush is partially parasitic on the roots of other plants.

Indian paintbrush inflorescence