Home
Advanced Search Map Locator
View Settings
Nurseries Carrying this Plant Add Current Plant To List Edit Current Plant
Show all Photos

About Calscape Nurseries
California Garden Planner Bay Area Garden Planner (NEW) Planting Guide
Butterflies My Plant Lists
Contact Calscape
Tap map to see plants native to location
Order by Popularity Order by Common Name Order by Scientific Name Order by # of Butterflies Hosted
Show nursery cultivars Hide nursery cultivars
Show plants not in nurseries Hide plants not in nurseries
Grid view Text view
Loading....
Indian Paintbrush
Castilleja affinis
  
About Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis) 1 Nurseries Carry This Plant 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. This is a perennial herb growing an erect stem up to about 60 centimeters in maximum height. It is greenish to purple in color and may be hairless to quite hairy. The leaves are variable in shape and up to 8 centimeters long. The flower cluster is a series of leafs in shades of bright red to yellowish. Flowers appearing between the leafs are a bit longer and covered in hairs. They are green to purple lined with red or yellow. The fruit is a capsule just over a centimeter long. There are three subspecies of this plant (ssp. affinis, ssp. litoralis, & ssp. neglecta). Ssp. affinins (Coast Indian painbrush) occurs commonly throughout western North America from Washington to Baja California. Ssp. litoralis and ssp. neglecta are quite rare. Ssp. littoralis (Oregon Coast paintbrush) grows on the coastline of northern California and Oregon and ssp. 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. Castilleja is a hemi-parasite, meaning that it derives some of its nutrients from a host plant.
Plant Description
Plant Type
Plant Type
Perennial herb, Annual herb

Size
Size
2 ft tall

Form
Form
Upright

Flower Color
Flower Color
Orange, Red, Yellow

Wildlife Supported
 
Is a non-specific host to Leanira Checkerspot (Chlosyne leanira) and Chalcedon Checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona) butterflies. Also attracts many native bees.

Landscaping Information
Sun
Sun
Full Sun

Nurseries
Nurseries

Ease of Care
Ease of Care
Very Difficult

Cold Tolerance
Cold Tolerance
Tolerates cold to 5° F

Soil Description
Soil Description
Rocky soil with sand.. Soil PH: 5.5 - 8.2

Common uses
Common uses
Butterfly Gardens

Companion Plants
Companion Plants
Plant alongside other plants of the coastal scrub/chapparal community, such as Coyote Bush (Bacharris Piluaris), Coast Buckwheat (Eriogonum latifolium), and Checker Bloom (Sidalcea malviflora).

Propagation
Propagation?
Since Castilleja is a hemi-parasite, planting it along with host plants such as lupine or bunch grasses may improve growth. Host plants are often very specific and can be difficult to choose, but try associates found in Castilleja's natural community such as Eriophyllum stachaedifolium (Lizard tail), Eriogonum parvifolium (Seacliff buckwheat), or Erigeron glaucus (Seaside daisy).

Natural Setting
Site Type
Site Type
Sea bluffs, hillsides,dry places

Climate
Climate
Annual Precipitation: 6.5" - 153.2", Summer Precipitation: 0.14" - 5.92", Coldest Month: 29.5" - 57.3", Hottest Month: 52.0" - 80.9", Humidity: 0.02" - 29.36", Elevation: -253" - 9540"

Alternative Names
Common Names: Coast Indian Paintbrush, Soft-leaved Indian Paintbrush, Softleaf Indian Paintbrush


Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. 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. 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.

Links:   Jepson eFlora Taxon Page  CalPhotos  Wikipedia  Calflora


Sign in to your Calscape Account X




Once signed in, you'll be able to access any previously saved plant lists or create new ones.

Email Address
Password

Sign In