Description
Deer Indian Paintbrush is a perennial, hemiparasitic herb with clustered, erect, branched stems that are 3-6 dm high and which arise from a branched rootcrown. The lower leaves are linear and entire-margined, while the upper leaves have a pair of spreading lobes. Foliage is glabrous or has minute, curled hairs. Flowers are borne in a spike at the top of the stems. Each flower is subtended by a 3-5-lobed leaf-like bract, which is broader than the leaves with yellowish tips. The yellow, tubular corolla, 18-25 mm long, tapers to a short hood, or galea, above and to 3 small lobes below. The tubular calyx, 15-20 mm long, surrounds the corolla and is cleft more deeply below than above; each of the lateral lobes divide again into 2 pointed lobes which are 2-3 mm long. The fruit is a capsule with many tiny seeds.
Diagnostic Characteristics
There are many species of yellow-colored CASTILLEJA in our area; a technical manual and hand lens are needed for positive identification. C. PALLESCENS and C. CUSICKII have glandular hairs on the galea, but C. CERVINA does not. C. RUSTICA and C. LUTESCENS have a calyces that are divided equally above and below. C. FLAVA has foliage with longer, straight hairs.