Indian Paintbrush / Castilleja rhexiifolia

A pretty shade of pink caught my eye just as I was about to enter the forest at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, on August 25th. Many people are perhaps more familiar with the bright red Indian Paintbrush, but we get a huge variation in colour of this species. To those who are not familiar with Indian Paintbrush, the actual flowers are the small green parts, while the pink parts are the bracts. Thanks to Mark Egger for the ID, Castilleja rhexiifolia - much appreciated, as always!

"Castilleja, commonly known as Indian paintbrush or Prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, northern Asia, and one species as far west as the Kola Peninsula in Europe. These plants are classified in the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae (following major rearrangements of the order Lamiales starting around 2001; sources which do not follow these reclassifications may place them in the Scrophulariaceae). They are hemiparasitic on the roots of grasses and forbs. The generic name honours Spanish botanist Domingo Castillejo."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja

Received an e-mail from my youngest daughter very early this morning, letting me know that she was back home after her 6-day trip to Savanna, Georgia, this past week. "As for the hurricane (Irene), we got a bit of rain the one evening, a quick downpour, and the waves were bigger than usual on one of the islands, but it was nothing. No evacuations. As Georgia is further west than the other states on the eastern seaboard, it's further from the gulf stream, which the hurricane was following. So, really hardly anything hit us."