The pretty, red, eye-catching parts of paintbrush wildflowers are not flower petals. But I am pretty sure they are all at least members of Castilleja. It is recognized by its fuzzy light green leaves and bright shades of yellow, orange, and red almost like a psychedelic sunflower. Even with the obvious differences, I have likely misidentified the photos on this page. A popular choice in most Colorado flower gardens, the Blanketflower easily re-grows from old root stock, flowering from June through September. It is quite interesting to find such differences in one genus, and the challenge of identification is enough to make me just want to stop at “paintbrush”. I have also encountered varieties of the desert paintbrush, Castilleja chromosa (or angustifolia) in the lower, drier areas of the west. You can easily see the variety (and the difficulty of identification!) in just these few photos. The flowers I see more often on my higher elevation hikes in this region are the lusher scarlet paintbrush, Castilleja miniata, and the rosy alpine paintbrush, Castilleja rhexifolia. Basal leaves formed during first year, short, oblong, with rounded ends. The actual flowers are inconspicuous, tubular, greenish-yellow, and nestled in the axils of the brilliantly colored bracts, which can be red, orange, or yellow. This flower grows from the foothills to the montane regions, has long, skinny leaves and is orangey-red. Description Indian paintbrush has hairy, upright stems with flowers clustered at the top. Paintbrush comes in hundreds of species and hybrids that are difficult to distinguish, but the Wyoming narrowleaf Indian paintbrush, Castilleja linariifolia, is the official state flower. I can’t let the summer progress too far without blogging about Wyoming’s state flower, the paintbrush.

Yellow paintbrush colorado