On the Trail With Dayle: Where have all the wildflowers gone?
By Dayle Hayes
“When a flower grows wild, it can always survive. Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.”
Indian paintbrush, also known as prairie-fire, has always been my favorite wildflower. I have hundreds of paintbrush photos on my phone—and I recently got a tattoo to demonstrate my love! The discrete tattoo (appropriate for an older lady) is inside my right ankle, which means that I can have my beloved flower with me every step of the year.
Until recently, I thought the 2025 season for paintbrush had passed and that I would have only my tattoo and old photos to enjoy until next year. The local GVLT trails with great patches, like Triple Tree, are generally brightest in late June and July. My photo library tells me that going back as far as 2016, the paintbrush blooms are at their best in Big Sky and the Beartooth Mountains in July through early August.
Then, on August 10, I hiked up past Elk Lake in the Beartooths for the first time since the 2022 flooding. The changes in the creek and reconstructed trail are dramatic. However, there was a sweet surprise at about 6,500 feet, which took away some of the sting of the flood damage. While all the blooms at lower elevations, like around East Rosebud Lake, have long disappeared for this year, I discovered a spectacular path through a serious paintbrush patch.
My hiking companions indulged my wish to have a tattoo photo shoot with the blooms—which I managed with only minor difficulty. Being barefoot on a very rocky trail with lots of other prickly plants does take some careful balance! Even better than getting tattoo-flower “in situ” photos was an ongoing deep dive into the botany, history, and meanings of the genus Castilleja, named in the 1780s for the Spanish botanist Domingo Castilleja.
A plant geneticist brother and a master gardener sister-in-law were the perfect co-investigators for learning all about paintbrush after our hike. There are about 200 species in the genus Castilleja, and while some are annuals, most are perennial. More than half, 119 species, are native to North America. However, the global distribution extends across northern Asia and into northwestern Russia. Paintbrush grows in a variety of habitats from open plains to higher rocky mountainous elevations, and it can reportedly thrive at temperatures from -20 to +95 degrees F. One species, Castilleja linariiflora, has been the state flower of Wyoming since 1917.
The most interesting fact I learned about paintbrush is that the Castilleja genus is hemiparasitic or partially parasitic. This means that paintbrush produces some of its own food through photosynthesis, like most plants. However, it can also establish connections with the roots of nearby plants and can take up both nutrients and water from its neighbors. This ability to take water from other plants may help paintbrush survive in dry conditions. I was also delighted to learn that pollinators—including butterflies and hummingbirds—help these bright flowers with their reproduction. Even though it is said to be somewhat difficult, I am going to try seeding some paintbrush plants around my cabin with nearby grasses for their parasitic partners.
Even a little online research reveals that native tribes had many uses—both medicinal and culinary—for Indian paintbrush. Most of these reports include a warning that the plant can absorb selenium, which is toxic to both humans and animals in high doses—so ingest with care! My favorite story about paintbrush and Native peoples is a children’s book, The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, retold and illustrated by the award-winning Tomie dePaola. With beautiful drawings of paint brushes that become flowers, it is a folktale about a young boy learning perseverance and the value of his own gifts. I have been known to cry a little while reading it.
What is your favorite wildflower? What special meanings does it have for you? Please drop me an email at DayleHayesMT@gmail.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts about wildflowers, tattoos, or topics for future columns.