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Extreme Paintbrushes

© Gregg Pasterick

Okay, so maybe they're not "extreme" as such, but there are a few paintbrushes out there cut of a slightly different cloth compared to the rest. Giant Red Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), unlike most of the paintbrushes I've encountered, prefers a moist environment. Alpine Paintbrush (C. nana), growing at 9,000 to 12,000 feet, keeps close to the ground, and has rather ordinary-looking flowers. And Lemmon's Paintbrush (C. lemmonii) is quite nearly a groundcover, and has gorgeous magenta flowers. They are, of course, members of that wonderfully diverse Snapdragon, or Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceaa).

I found all three species last July and August in Yosemite, along Tioga Pass - the eastern entrance into the park - and up on Mt. Dana, the tallest peak in the park.

I first found Giant Red Paintbrush in a couple of small wet meadows in June, in the southern Sierra Nevadas, growing among wet species such as Sierra Rein Orchids, Stream Orchids, Bigelow's Sneezeweed, and Common Monkeyflowers. That translates into a patchwork of scarlet, white, green, brown and shade of yellows. In the wet meadows of Yosemite it was strutting its stuff along with lupines and Sierra Onions and Small Leopard Lilies - that patchwork included blues, purples and pinks.

It does resemble most paintbrushes - unlike my other two "extreme" species, though it gets a little taller than some, growing up to 3'. It can be found in wet meadows throughout the mountains of the Pacific States.

Alpine Paintbrush is "extreme" for its habitat - dry, rocky alpine environs. Like most things that blossom so high, it sprawls more then achieves any height, getting no taller than about 6". The flowers are a rather uninspiring whitish-purplish-grayish, allowing it to blend in with its rocky surroundings. It can be found in the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains.

What Alpine Paintbrush lacks in flash, Lemmon's Paintbrush more than makes up for. It was another of those wildflowers I spotted in field guides, and couldn't wait until I finally saw it "in person". What surprised me, when I did finally find it, wasn't its colorful flowers, which resemble Owl's Clover, but how darn short it was.

It gets up to 12" tall, but most of what I found was much shorter. It was growing with Miniature Lupine, creating swells of pink and blue in the grassy meadows along Tioga Pass Rd.

These may "just" be three more examples of paintbrush species, but as far as the genus is concerned, they are pretty much "extreme" ... in my opinion, anyway ... and each of them is a real feather in the ol' wildflower cap.