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White-felted Indian Paintbrush
Castilleja lanata ssp. hololeuca
1998
The Castilleja gets its name from Castile, Spain, where the coat of arms is a red castle on a yellow field. Paintbrushes come in colors of red and yellow and this rare, coastal species provides a summer home for a hummingbird nasal mite, Rhinoseius epoecus, that travels with its bird host to west-central Mexico for the winter. Red is a color that birds see but insects cannot so these flowers are usually bird pollinated.
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