Narrative

Castilleja stenantha is found from Napa, Lake, and Toulumne Counties California, south to southern California. This erect annual can grow to a little over four feet tall. The leaves are linear to narrow lanceolate. The upper bracts are red at their tips. This plant is common in southern California but less common at the northern part of its range.

The red color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is locally common.

Castilleja genus (paint brush or painted cup) is a genus of about 200 species found primarily in North and Central America. Several species are found in Eurasia. Several species are native to the Andes Mountains of South America. Although there are a very limited number of species found in eastern North America (only one species commonly in the vicinity of Chicago, IL, for example), this genus is very common in the mountains of western North America. These plants frequently are parasitic on the roots of other plants. The flower raceme, including very brightly colored bracts, is quite distinctive and spectacular in many species. Several of the more widespread species appear in different color forms making species identification solely by color rather risky. Kartesz lists 119 species, one hybrid, and 49 subspecies as being found in his greater North America, including the United States, Canada, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceae) contains approximately 3,000-4,000 species of wide distribution arranged in about 220 genera. There are herbs, shrubs, and trees, with most species having irregular flowers. As of 1994, there were about 834 species in 82 genera either native to or established in greater North America, including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Greenland.

Tubiflora Order of plants is comprised of a large number of families that are characterized by having tube-like flowers. Several of the families have asymmetrical flowers with various lip and lobe configurations, while others have symmetrical flowers. The convention is to refer to the corolla divisions as lips, and to refer to the extensions at the end of the lips as lobes. This large order can be divided into two groups of families: those families with flowers with radial symetry and those famlies with flowers with bi-lateral symetry.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.