Though broadly distributed throughout the Great Plains, downy yellow painted cup in Iowa is mostly restricted to the bluff lands in the northeastern part of the state, and drier sites in the prairies and Loess Hills of north-central and north-western Iowa. Notably, it is listed as endangered in Illinois. ![]() Stems are densely hairy and unbranched, though a plant typically has multiple stems. Leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, narrow with rounded tips or narrowly lobed in 3 parts, softly hairy, toothless, with no leaf stalk. Individual flowers are about 1 inch long, pale yellow to greenish, tubular with a long slender upper lip and a shorter lower lip, lobed in 3 parts. Minnesota Wildflowers further describes downy yellow painted cup as follows:įlowers are in a dense, leafy spike along the upper half of the stem. The plant generally has one to several leafy, simple stems ranging from 4 to 14 inches in height emerging from a woody root crown. This perennial plant, which begins to flower on my prairie in early to mid-May, is a member of the Broomrape family ( Orobanchaceae), like Slenderleaf false foxglove. This year, I thought I would use my first Wildflower Wednesday post to describe another curious hemiparasitic plant living on my prairie, the almost ghostly pale-green Downy Yellow Painted Cup ( Castilleja sessiliflora). Its other common names include yellow Indian paintbrush or downy paintbrush. ![]() Speaking of interdependence, last year I posted an essay describing the lifestyle of a late-summer blooming hemiparasitic plant found on my Loess Hills prairie called Slenderleaf false foxglove ( Agalinis tenuifolia). ![]() The resilience of spring flowers in the face of an ever-changing environment, and their interdependence with pollinators offer good reminders of what we should aspire to in ourselves. Here we are in late spring. Seeing the prairie flowers begin their parade of blooms this year has been providing me with much needed mental respite from the travails of enduring the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Patrick Swanson features an unusual plant growing on the Harrison County prairie he is restoring.
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