The two we found at Torrey Pines, in the San Diego area were Coast Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis) and Woolly, or Felt Paintbrush (C. foliolosa.)
Coast Paintbrush is probably the most common paintbrush blooming along the Pacific Coast. It looks much like any other paintbrush with its bright scarlet flower leaf bracts and variable leaves, which are simply linear, or have up to six lobes. But it does grow in dry woods, coastal bluffs and partially stabilized dunes from Baja California up through the coastal ranges of California. That helps pin it down when scratching your head over a pile of field guides. (If it's any comfort, Seaside Paintbrush (C. latifolia,) the range of which overlaps with that of Coast Paintbrush, is very easy to I.D.)
The other paintbrush we found in bloom there, Woolly Paintbrush, is a little easier to pick out because of its hoary appearance; the leaves and stems are densely covered with white woolly hairs. Also, its calyx tips are rather more flattened than those of most other paintbrushes, which tend toward being pointy. Its lower leaves are linear while those higher up along the stem are three-lobed. It grows in the coastal ranges of California south to Baja. Though it isn't common as far east as the western Sierra Nevadas, it can be found along the western Mojave Desert, and adds to the wildflower spectacle that is Antelope Valley in the spring.
These two bloody red and bloody good explosions of color are but a hint of what the Snapdragon Family does in a good year in California. If the winter rainfall has been sufficient, deserts will show their soft side, filling up with a flurry of colorful wildflowers by March. Among these many and surprising desert flowers is Desert Paintbrush ... well, actually there are two Desert Paintbrushes, C. chromosa and C. augustifolia. The first, C. chromosa can be found in the Colorado Desert; the second can be found in the Mojave Desert. They are, or course, similar, including their darker foliage.
Anyway, February's not too early to go lookin' for wildflowers in southern California, and among the blossoms turning a painted face toward us you'll find a paintbrush or two, and they're just a sampler of not only the paintbrushes to come, but of the entire Snapdragon Family.
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