![]() ![]() The plant’s beauty above ground masks a deviousness below-Indian paintbrush is a partial parasite, unable to thrive alone in the soil. The bright colors of the paintbrush derive not from its flowers but from bracts, the leaf-like structures around the flowers, which grow shorter, wider, and more lobed toward the top, often with color highlights at the tips. Known botanically as Castilleja, these low-growing blooms of orange, red, or occasionally yellow appear like blazing tufts of pigment across the full spectrum of habitats-from grasslands to coastal bluffs, deserts to vernal pools, lowland bogs to the High Sierra-a testament to nature’s art and design. ![]() The April sun rises on a landscape splashed with the colors of spring, and few wildflowers hold the metaphor better than Indian paintbrush. ![]()
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