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Common Name: Indian Paint Brush, Painted Cup or Scarlet Painted-Cup
Scientific Name: Castilleja coccinea
Family Name: Scrophulariaceae
Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
May 9, 2002
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The bracts, or modified leaves, beneath the flowers of this pubescent annual or biennial herb are cleft into 3-5 segments and are more brilliantly colored than the slender, inch long flowers. More common northward, plants of this species, semi-parasitic on the roots of grasses, grow in moist meadows and along woodland margins chiefly in our mountains and, less frequently, in the piedmont. April-May [Justice, William S. and Bell, C. Ritchie, Wild Flowers of North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1968]
Actually, the flowers of this unusual member of the snapdragon family are hidden within the axils of the scarlet-tipped, fan-shaped bracts arranged in a dense spike at the top of the stem. The basal leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, elliptic, untoothed, and arranged in a rosette. The stalkless stem leaves are divided into narrow segments. Many of the various Indian tribes throughout North America collected and used this plant for medicinal purposes. A solution made from the roots, taken in small amounts as a drink, is said to have been a cure for venereal diseases. Indian paint brush grows in meadows and fields and in damp sandy soil. April-June [Alderman, J. Anthony, Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1997]
This is our only example of a genus that is represented by a score of species in the western United States. The tubular corollas are greenish yellow and bilaterally symmetric, the lower lip very short and deflexed. The flowers are almost hidden by 3-lobed bracteal leaves, the upper portions of which are brilliantly colored, scarlet in most plants but occasionally yellow. It is believed to be a rot-parasite. Moist fields and margins of woods. Spring-early Summer [Smith, Richard M., Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1998]
The showy color of this plant lies in the reddish-orange bracts, the bases of which are light green. Small tubular flowers, also light green in color, are almost hidden between layers of bracts. The plant is 12 to 18 inches tall, with clusters of flowers and bracts about 1-1/2 inches long. June and July [Campbell, Carlos C., Hutson, William F., Sharp, Aaron J., Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers, Fourth Edition. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1977]
This handsome species, 10-20 inches high, arises from a basal rosette of hairy leaves. The true flowers are greenish-yellow and practically concealed by vermilion- or scarlet-tinged upper leaves. The latter appear as though the plant had been pulled up and dipped into red paint. Scarlet painted-cup blooms from May to July in wet meadows and moist sandy soils at elevations up to 5,000 feet. It is reputed to be a partial parasite upon the roots of other plants. There are many species of Castilleja in the western United States, where they often go by the descriptive name "paint-brush." May-July [Stupka, Arthur, Wildflowers in Color. HarperPerennial, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1965]
Note the 3-lobed, scarlet-tipped bracts that all but hide the small 2-lipped greenish-yellowish flowers and their protruding pistils. 1-2 feet. Fields, meadows, prairies. May-July [Peterson, Roger Tory and McKenny, Margaret, Peterson Field Guides: A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and Northcentral North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1968]
The actual flowers are hidden in the axils of scarlet-tipped, fan-shaped bracts and arranged in a dense spike. Flowers: about 1" (2.5 cm) long, greenish-yellow, tubular, with a long, 2-lobed upper lip arching over shorter 3-lobed lower lip; styles protrude beyond bracts; bracts slightly longer than corolla. Leaves: basal ones 1-3" (2.5-7.5 cm) long; in rosettes, elliptic, untoothed; stem leaves stalkless, divided into narrow segments. Height: 1-2' (30-60 cm). May-July [Niering, William A. and Olmstead, Nancy C., National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Eastern Region. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1995]
Indian Paintbrushes get their name from an Indian legend about a brave who was trying to paint a prairie sunset and threw down his brushes. Where they landed there the flowers grew. There are over 200 species of paintbrushes in the New World, belonging to the genus Castilleja, many in the prairies and mountains of the west. Wyoming Paintbrush, C. linariaefolia, is the state flower of Wyoming. Indian Paintbrushes are annual or perennial plants, some of them almost shrubby, with alternate, lance-shaped or narrowly segmented leaves. Their distinctive flower clusters, with colored, often three-lobed bracts, grow at the tips of the stems. The actual flowers are small, and the bracts and calyces form the "paintbrush." [Forey, Pamela, American Nature Guides: Wild Flowers. Gallery Books, New York, 1990]
Height: 1'-2' (.3-.6m). Flower: 1" (2.5cm) long; irregular, with 5 petals forming a 2-lipped corolla, upper lip long and arched, shorter lower lip 3-lobed, 4 unequal stamens, 1 pistil; in axils of scarlet-tipped bracts on terminal spike. Leaves: Basal rosette of oblong leaves with entire edges; sessile stem-leaves cleft into 3-5 sharp lobes. In bloom: April-August. Habitat-Range: Moist meadows, thickets, roadsides; mostly throughout. Partially parasitic plants growing on grasses and other plants in sandy meadows and prairies. The pale, greenish-yellow flowers are actually hidden by the larger 3-5 lobed scarlet tipped bracts which make the plant conspicuous and explain why it is put into the red section of this book. The generic name honors Domingo Castillejo, a Spanish botanist. The common name derives from an Indian legend of an Indian brave who was attempting to paint a sunset with war paints and lamented to the Great Spirit his inability to duplicate a sunset. The Great Spirit responded by supplying him with brushes dripping with all the colors of a sunset. As the Indian painted his picture he discarded his brushes. Another common name is Painted-Cup. The blaze of the plant's color was taken as a "signature" by Indian medicine men that the plant could be used to treat burns and the burning bite of the centipede. Women of some Indian tribes drank a tea of the whole plant to "dry up the menstrual flow." [Klimas,John E. and Cunningham, James A., Wildflowers of Eastern America. Galahad Books, New York, 1974]
The tubular flowers of the Indian paintbrushes, clustered among brightly colored bracts (modified leaves), offer no landing place for bees or other pollinators; the plants therefore depend on hovering insects and hummingbirds for cross-fertilization. The pistil and the pollen-bearing stamens arch downward from the tip of the flower's upper lip, or galea, to touch the heads of these nectar-seeking creatures as they thrust their tongues or bills into the blossom. May-July [Barnard, Edward S. and Yates, Sharon Fass, Reader's Digest North American Wildlife: Wildflowers. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., Pleasantville, New York, 1998]
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