March 16, 2025

A plant to be admired for its determination and ability to sprout where its seeds are scattered. In cracks in rocks high up on steep walls at Zion National Park, where I managed to capture a picture. This plant has an appropriate common name, Slickrock Paintbrush (Castilleja scabrida).

That brilliant red, by the way, those are not petals but bracts. Bracts like you see on Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) or Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). All three of these have flowers that seem to have obvious petals but those petals are actually bracts.

Slickrock Paintbrush can be found mainly in Utah and Colorado, though it is native to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. It grows at elevations of 3,900 to 9,200 feet.

I don’t think it would be happy here at all.

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