Valley Tassels (Castilleja attenuata) Login         


        Description
  • EW Bloom Apr - May
  • This paintbrush is decorated with white and purple accents.
  • The stem is generally unbranched, with a narrow flower cluster on top.
  • Tiny flowers present three thin pouches and a beak.
  • CA native
  • AKA Narrow-Leaved Owl's Clover
  • Broomrape Family (Orobanchaceae)



Paintbrush flowers are white with purple dots. Bracts have white tips.



This plant is slender and unbranched - thus its species name, attenuata.



Valley Tassels is found in grasslands, especially around the Central Valley.

   Photo Gallery (42 ) click any picture to enlarge
    

Valley Tassels is an [[annual]], generally found in grasslands. It grows in a slender column, about 1 foot tall.

As with other [[paintbrushes]], most of what you see are [[bracts]] which wrap around tubular flowers. Bracts are mostly green and split into three ...

Leaves, bracts and stems are covered in short hairs that go in all directions. The hairs have no [[glands]] at their tips, so they're not sticky.

Purple flower markings make this one of the Owl's Clovers - a group of [[paintbrushes]] that remind people of owls' faces. They're surrounded by whit ...

Flowers have 3, parallel, vertical pouches that puff out slightly. Above the pouches, a beak points straight up. The [[pistil]] and [[stamens]] are ...