Castilleja levisecta
Encyclopedia
Castilleja levisecta is a rare species of flowering plant in the broomrape family
known by the common name golden paintbrush, or golden Indian paintbrush. It is native to British Columbia
and Washington, where it is known from eleven remaining populations. It occurred in Oregon
but all natural occurrences there have been extirpated
. It has been reintroduced to a few areas in Oregon, but it remains to be seen if the plants will survive. The plant is a federally listed endangered species
of Canada and was listed as threatened in the United States in 1997.
This is a perennial herb growing in clumps of up to fifteen stems. The leaves are green, containing chlorophyll
to undergo photosynthesis
, but like other Castilleja
it is a hemiparasite
, capable of tapping the roots of other plants to obtain nutrients and water. The inflorescence
contains bright golden yellow bract
s with small green flowers tucked between them. It is the only Castilleja with yellow bracts within its range in the Pacific Northwest
. The plant is thought to be pollinated
by bumblebee
s, including Bombus californicus. The species is nearly self-incompatible
, and a plant produces many more seeds when crossed with a less closely related individual, such as a plant from a separate population.
This species grows in prairie
habitat at low elevation
s, generally in soils of gravel
ly, glacier-carved
sediment
. It often occurs alongside Idaho fescue
(Festuca idahoensis) and red fescue
(F. rubra), and it is a member of the Garry Oak ecosystem
. The remaining Canadian occurrences of the species are on Trial Island and Alpha Islet off of Vancouver Island
. There are nine populations in Washington in maritime grasslands and bluffs around the Puget Sound
. Most of these are on islands, including several on Whidbey Island
and one on San Juan Island
.
The grasslands undergo periodic wildfire
s, and the paintbrush appears to thrive in this fire regime
, possibly because fires clear out taller vegetation that would otherwise compete with it, or provide it nutrients in the ash
. If the paintbrush is fire-adapted, it would experience negative effects from fire suppression efforts. Other threats to the species include habitat destruction during residential
or other development, and encroachment from introduced plant species
such as mouse-ear hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella), Scotch broom
(Cytisus scoparius), and oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). Plants experience herbivory by wild animals, trampling by hikers
, and losses when they are picked by wildflower enthusiasts.
The species has very high genetic diversity
for a rare plant, a condition that makes it less likely to experience rapid extinction
. Conservation efforts are underway, especially attempts to increase populations by introducing and reintroducing plants to appropriate habitat, and carefully augmenting extant populations by planting more individuals. The plant has been reintroduced to its former range in the Willamette Valley
in Oregon. These populations will be monitored for the long term, hopefully over twenty years, to assess their health and status.
Orobanchaceae
Orobanchaceae, the broomrape family, is a family of flowering plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera were formerly included in the family Scrophulariaceae sensu lato...
known by the common name golden paintbrush, or golden Indian paintbrush. It is native to British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and Washington, where it is known from eleven remaining populations. It occurred in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
but all natural occurrences there have been extirpated
Local extinction
Local extinction, also known as extirpation, is the condition of a species which ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere...
. It has been reintroduced to a few areas in Oregon, but it remains to be seen if the plants will survive. The plant is a federally listed endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
of Canada and was listed as threatened in the United States in 1997.
This is a perennial herb growing in clumps of up to fifteen stems. The leaves are green, containing chlorophyll
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from the Greek words χλωρος, chloros and φύλλον, phyllon . Chlorophyll is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light...
to undergo photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
, but like other Castilleja
Castilleja
Castilleja, commonly known as Indian paintbrush or Prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, northern Asia, and one species as far west as the Kola Peninsula in Siberia...
it is a hemiparasite
Parasitic plant
A parasitic plant is one that derives some or all of its sustenance from another plant. About 4,100 species in approximately 19 families of flowering plants are known. Parasitic plants have a modified root, the haustorium, that penetrates the host plant and connects to the xylem, phloem, or...
, capable of tapping the roots of other plants to obtain nutrients and water. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
contains bright golden yellow bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
s with small green flowers tucked between them. It is the only Castilleja with yellow bracts within its range in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. The plant is thought to be pollinated
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
by bumblebee
Bumblebee
A bumble bee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere although they are common in New Zealand and in the Australian state of Tasmania.Bumble bees are social insects that are characterised by black...
s, including Bombus californicus. The species is nearly self-incompatible
Self-incompatibility in plants
Self-incompatibility is a general name for several genetic mechanisms in angiosperms, which prevent self-fertilization and thus encourage outcrossing...
, and a plant produces many more seeds when crossed with a less closely related individual, such as a plant from a separate population.
This species grows in prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
habitat at low elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
s, generally in soils of gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
ly, glacier-carved
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....
sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
. It often occurs alongside Idaho fescue
Festuca idahoensis
Festuca idahoensis is a species of grass known by the common names Idaho fescue and blue bunchgrass. It is native to western North America, where it is widespread and common...
(Festuca idahoensis) and red fescue
Festuca rubra
Festuca rubra is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue. It is found worldwide and can tolerate many habitats and climates; it generally needs full sun to thrive...
(F. rubra), and it is a member of the Garry Oak ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
. The remaining Canadian occurrences of the species are on Trial Island and Alpha Islet off of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
. There are nine populations in Washington in maritime grasslands and bluffs around the Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
. Most of these are on islands, including several on Whidbey Island
Whidbey Island
Whidbey Island is one of nine islands located in Island County, Washington, in the United States. Whidbey is located about north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington...
and one on San Juan Island
San Juan Island
San Juan Island is the second-largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands in northwestern Washington, United States. It has a land area of 142.59 km² and a population of 6,822 as of the 2000 census....
.
The grasslands undergo periodic wildfire
Wildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
s, and the paintbrush appears to thrive in this fire regime
Fire regime
A fire regime is the pattern, frequency and intensity of the bushfires and wildfires that prevails in an area. It is an integral part of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. If fires are too frequent, plants may be killed before they have matured, or before they have set...
, possibly because fires clear out taller vegetation that would otherwise compete with it, or provide it nutrients in the ash
Wood ash
Wood ash is the residue powder left after the combustion of wood. Main producers of wood ash are wood industries and power plants.-Composition:...
. If the paintbrush is fire-adapted, it would experience negative effects from fire suppression efforts. Other threats to the species include habitat destruction during residential
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
or other development, and encroachment from introduced plant species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
such as mouse-ear hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella), Scotch broom
Cytisus scoparius
Cytisus scoparius, the Common Broom and Scotch Broom, syn. Sarothamnus scoparius, is a perennial leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe,....
(Cytisus scoparius), and oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). Plants experience herbivory by wild animals, trampling by hikers
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, and losses when they are picked by wildflower enthusiasts.
The species has very high genetic diversity
Genetic diversity
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary....
for a rare plant, a condition that makes it less likely to experience rapid extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
. Conservation efforts are underway, especially attempts to increase populations by introducing and reintroducing plants to appropriate habitat, and carefully augmenting extant populations by planting more individuals. The plant has been reintroduced to its former range in the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
in Oregon. These populations will be monitored for the long term, hopefully over twenty years, to assess their health and status.