59 



C. DESCRIPTION 



1. GENERAL NONTECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Castille-ia 

 qracillima is a perennial herb with slender stems 

 arising more or less distantly from one another. 

 The stems are usually unbranched and grow 2-5 dm 

 tall. Leaves are longer than wide and may be 

 lance-shaped, or they may be narrower and have 

 sides which are parallel to one another. Stems and 

 leaves are smooth to hairy. The inflorescence is 

 made up of green tubular flowers, each with two 

 lips. The upper lip forms an extension nearly as 

 long as the tubular portion, and the lower lip is 

 reduced to three small teeth. Below each flower is 

 an oblong bract which is yellow to orange. In 

 Montana, plants bloom from late June to August. 



2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Slender perennial from a 

 rhizome or remote woody caudex, 2-5 dm, usually 

 unbranched, glabrous to villous; leaves entire, 

 linear to lanceolate; inflorescence yellow to 

 orange or sometimes red; bracts oblong, entire to 

 lobed distally with a pair of lateral lobes, 

 villous-puberulent; calyx 15-22 mm, deeply 

 subequally cleft above and below, the primary lobes 

 divided into 2 acute segments 2-4 mm long; corolla 

 20-30 mm, galea densely puberulent, shorter than 

 the tube and about 5 times as long as the dark 

 green lower lip (adapted from Hitchcock et al. 

 1959) . 



D. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



1. RANGE: Castilleja qracillima is a regional endemic 

 occurring in northwestern Wyoming and adjacent 

 Montana, and extending to central Idaho. 



2. CURRENT SITES (GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST): 

 Castilleja qracillima is known from two sites on 

 the Gallatin National Forest. Both sites are near 

 the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, one 

 along Grayling Creek, and the other on the Gallatin 

 River. Location data providing legal and 

 topographic details are provided in the element 

 occurrence print-outs, pp. 64 and 66, and the maps, 

 pp. 65 and 67. Photographs are provided on pp. 68- 

 69. Between these two sites, populations of C. 

 qracillima occur along both drainages on 

 Yellowstone National Park lands. Field surveys 

 were conducted by the author on 7 July 1989 and 2 

 August 1989. 



3. HISTORICAL SITES (GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST): Two 

 historical collections of Castilleia qracillima 



