INDIAN PAINTBRUSH
File Size: 208 KB
 
Castilleja coccinea   (L. ) Spreng.
Anderson 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
70 KB
Neosho County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush
141 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush
205 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush habit
181 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush leaf
35 KB
Neosho County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush flowers
128 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush leaf
112 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush leaf
142 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush
166 KB
Anderson County, Kansas
Indian paintbrush
179 KB
Anderson County, Kansas