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Castilleja christii
Also called Christ's Paintbrush
Christ's Indian paintbrush is a rare perennial wildflower from a single mountain population in Idaho, belonging to a genus of hemiparasitic plants that partly feed on the roots of neighbouring plants. It is rarely grown in gardens, and cultivation is not well documented.
Castilleja christii is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae known by the common name Christ's Indian paintbrush. It is endemic to Idaho in the United States, where there is a single population on Mount Harrison in the Albion Mountains in the Minidoka Ranger District of Sawtooth National Forest. It is one of Idaho's rarest plants.
This plant was named for John Henry Christ (1896–1973), who first collected it. It is a perennial herb with a cluster of several erect stems 15 to 30 centimetres (5.9 to 11.8 inches) tall. The lance-shaped leaves are a few centimeters long and may be divided into lobes. The inflorescence is covered in glandular hairs. It contains many lance-shaped yellow or orange bracts and flower corollas 2 to 3 centimetres (0.79 to 1.18 inches) long. Blooming occurs in July and August. The plant reproduces by seed.
Exserted Indian paintbrush · Entireleaf Indian paintbrush · Wholeleaf Indian paintbrush · Wyoming Indian paintbrush · Indian Paintbrush
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Castilleja christii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
