Dense-Flowered Owl's Clover (Castilleja densiflora ssp. densiflora) Login         


        Description
  • EW Bloom Mar - May
  • Owl's Clover is not a clover but a kind of paintbrush.
  • Flowers have white pouches and dots that look like an owl's face.
  • Compare to Purple Owl's Clover
  • Endemic to California, this plant is often found in serpentine grasslands.
  • AKA Dense Flowered Owl's Clover, Dense-Flowered Indian Paintbrush
  • Broomrape Family (Orobanchaceae)



Flowers and colorful bracts form a dense, rounded cluster at the top of erect stems. Small white pouches with purple dots decorate the display.



Flowers are tubes that end in three white pouches and a narrow, vertical beak. Leaves are quite narrow and often deeply forked.



Like other paintbrushes, its roots can absorb food from the roots of adjacent plants.

   Photo Gallery (36 ) click any picture to enlarge
    

Dense Flowered Owl's Clover is an annual - it grows an impressive floral display from seed each year. It stands erect, about 1 foot tall. Along wi ...

Owl's Clover does well in low-nutrient [[serpentine]], granitic or sandy soil, partly because it can gather nutrients direct from neighboring plants. ...

Narrow leaves are green, generating some food through photosynthesis. However, a lot of Owl's Clover's food comes from the roots of others, so it can ...

Leafy [[bracts]] surround the flowers, turning lavender and white, especially at their tips.

In addition, the base of each flower displays a beautiful halo of narrow, round-tipped[[sepals]].