General: Perennial, semi-parasitic, 25-70 cm tall; stems few- several, erect to ascending, often branched above, woody at the base; herbage glabrous to pilose.

Leaves: Cauline, alternate, linear to lanceolate, 3-8 cm long, margins entire, rarely the upper blades deeply 3-lobed; blades sessile.

Flowers: Inflorescence a spike-like raceme, red, orange-red, rarely yellow, hispid to villous, sometimes glabrous; bracts divided into a pair of lateral segments; calyx 1.8-2.8 cm long, cleft into 2 lateral primary lobes, distinctly more deeply cleft in front (10-22 mm) than in back (2-12 mm), the calyx bearing most of the coloration; corolla tubular, 2.4-4 cm long, bent forward and projecting the galea and lower lip through the front cleft of the calyx, bilabiate, the galea 1-2 cm long, lower lip much reduced and with incurved teeth; flowers April-October.

Fruits: Loculicidal capsule, oblong-ovoid, 10-13 mm long; seeds numerous, minute.

Ecology: Moist meadows, streambanks, montane to subalpine habitats; 1700-3700 m (5500-12000 ft); Apache, Coconino, Gila, Greenlee, and Navajo counties; central and western Canada, western and southwestern U.S.

Notes: Castilleja kaibabensis (Kaibab Plateau Indian paintbrush) is similar, but distinguished by its densely hispid herbage; inflorescences are red, orange-red, or sometimes yellow; calyx lobes are only slightly more deeply cleft in front than in back; corolla is slightly shorter (2.2-3 cm long), the galea 9.5-14 mm long. It occurs in subalpine meadows among spruce-fir-aspen forests, and is endemic to the Kaibab Plateau of Coconino County. Previous treatments have referred C. kaibabensis species to C. confusa, which later treatments (Cronquist et al. 1984) consider to be synonymous with C. miniata. Castilleja austromontana (Rincon Mountain Indian paintbrush) is pubescent with stiff, spreading hairs; leaves are linear to lanceolate, 2-6 cm long; inflorescences are bright red, the bracts entire to merely toothed near the apex; calyx is only slightly more deeply cleft in front than in back; corolla is 1.5-3 cm long, usually greatly surpassing the calyx. It occurs in meadows and montane habitats in north-central to eastern Arizona. The root bark of C. miniata is used as a dye to color deerskin.

Editor: Springer et al. 2008