Habit: Annual to subshrub, green.
Leaf: sessile, entire to dissected.
Inflorescence: spike-like; bracts becoming shorter, wider, more lobed than leaves, mature tips generally cream to red or green.
Flower: calyx unequally 4-lobed, colored like bract tips; corolla upper 2 lip lobes fused, beak-like, tip open, lower lip reduced, 3-toothed to -pouched; stamens 4, anther sacs 2, unequal; stigma entire to 2-lobed, generally exserted.
Fruit: +- asymmetric.
Seed: generally +- brown, attached at base; coat netted, net-like walls ladder-like or not.
Species In Genus: +- 200 species: especially western North America.
Etymology: (Domingo Castillejo, Spanish botanist, 1744--1793)
Note: Hybridization and polyploidy common. Biologically consistent taxa difficult to define.
Castilleja chrymactis Pennell not in California, sole (1947) record a misidentified, incomplete specimen.
Jepson eFlora Author: Margriet Wetherwax, T.I. Chuang & Lawrence R. Heckard
Reference: Tank & Olmstead 2008 Amer J Bot 95:608--625
Unabridged Reference: Chuang & Heckard 1991 Syst Bot 16:644--666Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Castilleja
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