Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Perennial with villous stems with spreading hairs, 10-65 cm tall.

Leaves: Entire, thin and lax, linear to linear-lanceolate or oblanceolate, to 6 cm long, glabrous to sparsely scabrous on the upper surface, hispid or villous on the lower surface.

Flowers: Short dense spike, floral bracts obovate, shorter and wider than leaves, entire or with acute lateral teeth, green with red apex, glandular-pubescent, villous on veins and margins; calyx equally cleft about a third the length of the tube on both upper and lower sides, lateral lobes acuminate, tube yellow and villous, becoming red and glandular at apex; corolla exserted, 15-30 mm long.

Fruits: Loculicidal capsule with numerous seeds.

Ecology: Found in montane forests 6,500-10,000 ft (1981-3048 m); flowers May-September.

Notes: Distinguished by the linear to lance shaped leaves, the stiff spreading hairs, bright red bracts, and its large size.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Etymology: Castilleja is for the Spanish botanist Domingo Castillejo (1744-1793), while austromontana means of the southern mountains.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010