Thank you for buying a native plant from Windflower Native Plant Nursery. Your purchase helps create a bit of Montana natural  history in your own yard as well as restore a piece of native Montana. This plant was grown by seed I collected locally in an ethical manner.    

Red paintbrush
Castilleja miniata
Figwort Family

Color: scarlet to red but occasionally can be pale pink to white
Plant height: 20-60 cm”
Bloom time: early to mid-summer

Native habitat: moist meadows, forest openings, often near streams.
This paintbrush species occurs in more habitats than any other paintbrush species which gives it the common names, “Common Paintbrush”, “Red Paintbrush” or “Common Red Paintbrush”.

Paintbrush can be difficult to grow because they need a neighboring plant or a companion in which they join “roots” to “steal” nutrients. Many paintbrush species have only a few small hairs on their roots. Plants use these hairs to absorb nutrients hence the dependence paintbrush may have on their more hairy companions for their “food”. 

I plant my paintbrush with a fleabane (usually Erigeron perigrinus) or a native grass species as their companion. You wouldn’t want to remove the companion plant because if you do you are robbing the paintbrush of its food source. If you want a neat and tidy garden spot a paintbrush with its companion may not work for you. Removing the grasses or other plants growing near a paintbrush may eventually eliminate the paintbrush because it is impossible to tell which plant the paintbrush may be using as its host.

It is fairly easy to learn to identify a paintbrush, picking it out from among other native plants. It becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between paintbrush species without a technical plant key and the knowledge to use that key. Plus paintbrushes hybridize among themselves making it even more difficult to distinguish between the species. Three red and four yellow species of paintbrush grow within Glacier National Park and hybridization takes place among many of these species.

According to Kershaw, MacKinnon & Pojar, authors of Plants of the Rocky Mountains, some researchers believe the paintbrushes and hummingbirds may have evolved together. Hummingbirds have very few taste buds and almost no sense of smell; they need large amounts of very sweet nectar. They can see colors well and are attracted to reds and loosely clustered flowers.  Interestingly enough paintbrush grow in clusters, many species are red, they have no scent, produce lots of very sweet nectar and their long, narrow tubes have strong tissues that aren’t damaged by the hummingbird’s long bill. Mmmmm…interesting to think about.

Windflower Native Plant Nursery
PO Box 306
West Glacier, MT 59936
1.406.387.5527
www.windflowernativeplants.com