The plant’s true flowers are actually smaller, slender green growths hidden amongst the bracts. That gorgeous red color we so often admire is actually bracts, or specially modified leaves, as opposed to flowers. Consider planting stands of blue gamma grass or sagebrush nearby to help the Indian paintbrush thrive. However, this relationship doesn’t do any damage to the unsuspecting neighbors. Indian paintbrush intertwines its roots with other plants to leach nutrients and water. Here are some other interesting characteristics to note: Source: Grow Native Colorful Indian paintbrush grows between 4- to 22-inches high on average. This perennial plant prefers dry, loamy soil and plays host to a wide range of pollinators, making it a great plant for backyard designs. There are over 100 species of Indian paintbrushes, but one of the most common and best adapted to our climate is the colorful Indian paintbrush ( Castilleja Angustifolia). Looking For a Colorful, Drought-Tolerant Perennial? Meet the Indian Paintbrush Fortunately for you, these Colorado plants are easy to add to your own landscape and will thrive happily year after year. Upon closer examination, the Indian paintbrush is a small to medium-sized plant with stalks of linear leaves topped by bright red bracts. If so, there’s a good chance you’ve spotted stands of Indian paintbrush ( Castilleja ssp). May 19, 2001.If you’ve spent any amount of time gazing at our beautiful Colorado landscape, no doubt you’ve noticed a couple of fiery spots of color dotting the hillsides and valleys from March through September. Saving the American West’s Sagebrush Sea. The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History. Bold Figures, Blurred History: The Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon. Head of Sinbad Pictographs in San Rafael Swell. Is It Rabbitbrush or Is It Sagebrush? ĭe Paola, Tomie. Text: Shannon Rhodes, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University Īlpine Nature Center. Images: Courtesy & Copyright © Shannon Rhodes, Photographer I’m Shannon Rhodes, and I’m wild about Utah. Some have said that the sagebrush is the backbone of the West, and I would add that indian paintbrush adds a splash of color.Ĭourtesy and Copyright © by Shannon Rhodes, photographerAlong with horsebrush, buckbrush, blackbrush, bitterbrush which is also known as antelopebrush, and rabbitbrush, indian paintbrush and sagebrush tell a Utah story as distinctive as that portrayed in the brushstrokes of the pictographs of this land. I was surprised at first that she did not include indian paintbrush in the list of plants until I realized that willow, wildrose, sego lily, and sunflower all had practical uses beyond their beauty. ![]() In his appendix of “The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History,” Darren Parry shares his grandmother’s handwritten field notes about sagebrush, indicating its use in tea and purifying ceremonies. ![]() Mae Timbimboo Parry, once a recordkeeper of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone, sketched how to identify sagebrush in much the same way. Alternately, a student wrote that sagebrush is minty, soft, and “smells horrible.” We learned to recognize the sagebrush leaf three-toothed tridents and the magical way rubbing the leaves on paper both releases and traps that distinctive fragrance. Another thought that it looks like a banana, smells sweet, and likes bees and rocks. One student wrote that rabbitbrush smells like strawberries and is bushy yellow. To celebrate Aggie homecoming, my first grade class went out this week to explore describing adjectives of sagebrush compared to those for rabbitbrush, another brush native in Utah. In fact, some species of indian paintbrush are root-parasites for sagebrush, intertwining roots to access water and nutrients because they lack small hairs on their own.Ĭourtesy and Copyright © by Shannon Rhodes, photographerThe Utah State University fight song captures the love we have for the spots in Utah where sagebrush grows. Often, when we see indian paintbrush, whether we’re in Utah’s deserts up in elevation through subalpine meadows, we also see sagebrush. Of course, our petroglyphs are fascinating, but I like to imagine how the pictographs adorning many of Utah’s “learning rock” sandstone walls may have been painted with brushes, fingers, and other tools many centuries ago. In Tomie dePaola’s children’s picture book “The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush,” Little Gopher discovers “brushes filled with paint, each one a color of the sunset.” The legend is a flashy tale celebrating this member of the figwort family and stories captured in rock art. The nickname “prairie fire” is an accurate one, highlighting the variety of colors we find: reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, purples, and sometimes a mixture of two. Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 3:02 | Recorded on October 25, 2021Ĭourtesy and Copyright © by Shannon Rhodes, photographerOf all the lovely wildflowers to enjoy in Utah, indian paintbrush has to top my list.
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