INDIAN PAINTBRUSH state wildflower and challenge to cultivate!

Question: I’d like to have onto other ’ roots to get more paintbrush it was in the spirit of “why Indian paintbrush growing in my resources such as water, nutrients, not give it a whirl?” rather than with landscape. Why do I never see it for and minerals. There are a range of serious intent. I had long heard it was sale at my local nursery? other parasitic and hemiparasitic difficult to grow. So when I started Answer: They are not that easy native plants in such as paying more attention, a couple of to grow successfully. coralroots Corallorhiza spp., bastard things surprised me. Indian paintbrush is a common toadflax Comandra umbellata, First, Indian paintbrush plants sight across Wyoming. lousewort Pedicularis spp. and produce a lot of seed; I was thinking They can be bright red, , oneflowered broomrape Orobanche since they were hard to grow, they’d yellow, and even pink blossoms uniflora. be pretty frugal seed producers. (long-lived bracts really, the actual Parasitism is part of the array of are very inconspicuous) and survival strategies for plants growing brighten our wild landscapes and in challenging environments. grab our attention. So much so that Because Indian paintbrush roots linariifolia (Wyoming Indian need to be attached to another host If you are ever on the paintbrush) is our state wildflower. (grass, sagebrush, penstemon, University of Wyoming No wonder so many people etc.), the challenge lies in the campus in summer swing would like to have this plant successful creation and maintenance by the Berry Center. There growing in their landscapes of this relationship in a nursery you will find a whole bed of but is almost never seen in setting. Indian paintbrush growing nurseries for sale. Why? The main reason is Indian paintbrush is a Growing pains happily with fringed sage hemiparasitic (partially parasitic) I have grown hundreds of plants – grown by Dorothy plant. Hemiparasitic plants produce species of plants from seed over Tuthill from the UW some of their own food through the years for fun. I admit when I Biodiversity Institute. photosynthesis, but they also latch started looking into growing Indian

SPRING 2019 15 The small seeds can be found in cup-like seed pods that of the nearby penstemons, but without x-ray vision I can open once the seed is mature. only speculate. Secondly, the species I tried really weren’t that hard to germinate. I gave them a cold stratification What the literature says period of 6 to 8 weeks and then planted them inside I started paying a bit more attention and decided to under fluorescent lights. I had seedlings left, right, and look into the scientific literature and other sources to see center, since I planted quite a bit, thinking they wouldn’t what might be more successful approaches. germinate well. They popped right up and grew quite Some things I learned: quickly. • Put seedlings in close contact with a host plant It all fell apart after transplanting. so they can make a successful hemiparasitic I transplanted the seedlings in the garden near connection, possible host plants. Most of them decided it was time • Pair them with a host plant that can handle the to quit and croaked. One made it and decided to thrive (1 freeloading without dying, and out of 20 isn’t bad, is it?). I suspect it is living off of one • Try pairing them with a short host plant so they aren’t hidden.

Orange-flowered, lone surviving Indian paintbrush plant grown from seed, in the author’s landscape. Perhaps one plant is enough?

16 BARNYARDS & BACKYARDS What are some approaches to create the critical wormwood (Artemisia michauxiana), Rubber host-hemiparasite relationship? Some thoughts in the rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa), Pineleaf plant-growing world are: beardtongue (Penstemon pinifolius), Yellow • Plant the seeds of both species – host and sundrops (Calylophus serrulatus), Blue Mountain paintbrush – in the same pot and hope they both buckwheat (Eriogonum strictum), and James’ germinate promptly. buckwheat (Eriogonum jamesii). • Germinate the Indian paintbrush and host plant • They had the best success growing the seeds separately and then transplant them into paintbrush and host plants separately from seed the same pot. Then gently transplant outside and then transplanting multiple seedlings into after the relationship is established. the same pot when the paintbrush plants were • Plant the seeds of the Indian paintbrush outside about 4 inches. (They placed two seedlings of near a potential host plant that is already each type of plant together in a 4-inch pot, so growing. Hopefully, they make contact when the four plants total per pot.) paintbrush germinates. • Great care should be taken when transplanting A paper by Stephen L. Love and Tony A. McCammon these paired plants into a landscape as a called “Compatible host/parasite pairs enhance unit. Disturbance to the root ball will kill the propagation of paintbrush (Castilleja spp.)” was the most paintbrush. useful paper I came across during my research. The How much does the host plant tend to spread (by University of carried out a study to see how Indian seed or roots/rhizomes)? A host plant such as Rocky paintbrush could best be cultivated by the horticulture Mountain penstemon produces lots of seed but is easy industry. (The short note results from this study on to control by cutting the seed heads off before they one species, Castilleja integra, can be viewed at the mature. Fringed sage is a fairly vigorous spreader (creeps “Native Plants for the Intermountain West” website along to cover the surrounding area and reseeds when produced by a consortium of university plant experts: it has the chance), and I have known folks who found bit.ly/Western-Native-Plants). rubber rabbitbrush’s reseeding tendencies too much and ripped it out (these characteristics may vary by cultivar). Creating that plant-to-plant relationship Give growing Indian paintbrush a whirl if interested. Love and McCammon tried 34 species of paintbrush, There are plenty of places from which to purchase a number of host plants, and a couple of different seed, and some experimentation might give you some methods to create the host relationship. They found: big blooms. • Some Indian paintbrush species germinated Not interested in the effort? There is enough interest better for them than others. in growing these plants I would not be surprised to see • Castilleja integra, Castilleja scabrida and Castilleja it offered more commonly in nurseries in the future. chromosa were the most successful species of (You’ll still have to transplant very carefully.) And then Indian paintbrush they tried. These species were there is the ultimate in easy – just enjoy it growing in the most likely to grow and survive the process. great outdoors each summer! There really is nothing • They believed that higher levels of paintbrush like seeing the bright red-orange of Indian paintbrush survival, plant vigor, and aesthetic compatibility gleaming amongst the sagebrush. Long live Castilleja occurred when C. integra was paired with and its accommodating hosts! Fringed sage (Artemisia frigida), Michaux’s

For more information on growing native Jennifer Thompson is the small acreage issue plants, visit our “Native Plants” web page team coordinator and is also coordinator of the by going to www.uwyo.edu/barnbackyard Barnyards&Backyards magazine. and clicking on the Native Plants link under Welcome to Barnyards&Backyards.

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