Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, grasslands. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 18, 2007.

Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, grasslands. Spring.
Behind the Rocks Wilderness Study Area, Utah, April 23, 2006 and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 18, 2007.

Castilleja chromosa likes hot, dry, sandy soils.  In the low desert early spring, thriving on these conditions, it is brilliant, nearly iridescent.  The red bracts and sepals of Castilleja chromosa are hairy and cupped,

and some bracts, sepals, and leaves are deeply cut into three lobes. (See next photograph also).  The plant often has a light purple tinge to its leaves and bracts.

"Chrom" is Greek for "color".  "Angustifolia" is Latin for "narrow foliage".  Aven Nelson named this species Castilleja chromosa in 1899 from a specimen he collected in 1898.  Nelson also named Castilleja angustifolia variety dubia in 1902.  Intermountain Flora observes, "until 1899 [C. chromosa] passed for the little-understood C. angustifolia.  The two are closely related and are sometimes difficult to distinguish.  If one chose to consider them conspecific [i.e., "the same species"], the name C. angustifolia var. dubia ... is available for  C. chromosa".  Some botanists now again accept that there is no C. chromosa species; the plants pictured in this section are all a variety of C. angustifolia.

Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, grasslands. Spring.
Behind the Rocks Wilderness Study Area, Utah, April 23, 2006 and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 18, 2007.

Castilleja chromosa's vivid red color comes from the modified leaves, the "bracts"; the flowers are narrow, green tubes projecting outward at about 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock in the photograph at left.  Below, the curved filament of the stamen is topped by hanging, bulbous anther.