Species page
Texas Paintbrush
Castilleja indivisa
Scrophulariaceae (Orobanchaceae)
Orange
Red
The annual Indian paintbrush is one of the signature wildflowers of Texas, and in large patches it is certainly one of the showiest. It is native to sandy prairies of the eastern part of the state but is now also commonly sown by the highway department on roadsides for its spring bloom. Each brilliant “paintbrush” is composed of many flowers, but much of the bright red you see is not on the flowers themselves but rather on bracts (each flower has a large red-tipped bract right below it, and the flower itself also has red at its tip). The picture with two different paintbrushes compares this species on the left with the prairie paintbrush, a perennial, on the right.
