Castilleja indivisa Figwort Family
- Scrophulariaceae
Bloom period Mar - June and then again in Nov-Dec when conditions are just
right.
In Texas, the Indian paintbrush often grows in concert with the bluebonnet and is almost as popular with Texans. A
Native American legend describes the origin of the flower.
Each evening, a young chief sat watching the sunset as the colors changed from rose to crimson to gold and then faded, leaving a gorgeous
after glow. He longed to be able to paint this beauty on buckskin, but he had only his crude war paints and heavy, stiff brushes, too clumsy to copy such
colors. Each night, after the glorious tints faded into darkness, he went to his tipi sad and heavy-hearted. One evening, as he sat watching a sunset more
beautiful than any he had ever seen, he heard a voice telling him to look down by his feet. There, he found a graceful plant shaped like a slender brush wet with paint that matched the red of the sunset. When he held its tip to the soft buckskin before him the color transferred perfectly. As other brushes sprang up dripping with the colors of the
sunset, he worked feverishly at his picture, tossing aside each brush as he finished with it and plucking another. At last his heart was filled with joy, for his picture was a true copy of the sunset. And in the morning, he saw that every brush he had tossed away had taken root and
multiplied, spreading the vivid beauty of the paintbrush over the land.
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