Castilleja Nana, Dwarf Alpine Indian Paintbrush

Castilleja nana is found all across the Sierra Nevada in California, and in scattered mountain ranges of Nevada, extending to the Deep Creek Range in far west Utah. Leaves are clustered, narrow, and often folded up along the midvein; they may be entire or divided into three or five lobes. Stems, leaves and bracts have a covering of silky, spreading, unbranched, non-glandular hairs. Leaf color varies from green to purple, while bracts are more generally purple, often tinged with yellow, orange or brown, and they have whitish-green margins. The tips of the bracts are pointed (acuminate).

Flowers are nestled within the upper bracts; they have a cylindrical calyx, divided about half its height into four approximately equal-sized lobes, and a similar length corolla, yellow with purple blotches, with an exserted, brown-purple stigma.