Castilleja miniata

Castilleja miniata is a species of Indian paintbrush known by the common name giant red paintbrush. It is native to western North America from Alaska to Ontario to California to New Mexico, where it grows usually in moist places in a wide variety of habitat types.

Giant red paintbrush is a perennial herb that grows 12 to 80 centimeters tall, though occasionally reaching 1 meter, with few to many branching stems. It can have a taproot or grow from rhizomes with branching roots. The lance-shaped leaves are 3 to 6 centimeters long, pointed, and coated in thin hairs. The inflorescence is made up of bright red to pale orange or orange-tipped bracts. Between the bracts emerge the yellow-green, red-edged tubular flowers. Flowers bloom May to September.

Because most species of the genus are parasitic on other plants, sophisticated networks are formed between their roots and those of other species. They therefore cannot be transplanted in most cases. It frequently will use willow as a host plant. Its native habitats include wet mountain meadows and stream banks below 11,000 feet (3,400 m).

Castilleja miniata was given its scientific name and described in 1838 by George Bentham attributing it to David Douglas. It is a species of Castilleja classified in the family Orobanchaceae.

According to Plants of the World Online there are four varieties of the species:

Initially described as Castilleja dixonii by Merritt Lyndon Fernald in 1899, it was reduced to a variety by Aven Nelson and J.F. Macbride in 1918. It is found on the west coast in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

Francis Whittier Pennell described it as Castilleja fulva in 1934 and as a variety by John Mark Egger in 2008. It grows in Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory.

The autonymic variety is widespread and from Alaska to Baja California and eastward to the Rocky Mountain states and Ontario.