Castilleja leschkeana J.T.Howell (1948:91)

Point Reyes paintbrush, Point Reyes Indian paintbrush, Point Reyes Indian-paintbrush

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Conservation Status

Extinct (Smith & York, 1984:2; WCMC, 1992:222; Knapp et al., 2020, 2021; Albani Rocchetti et al., 2022; POWO, 2023; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025; NatureServe, 2026) or Extinct (if valid) ([Hickman, 1993(?);] Rejmánek, 2018) or Invalid (synonym of C. chrymactis) (POWO, 2018 fide Humphreys et al., 2019)

Last record (disputed): 1947 (Smith & York, 1984:2 [as sole record]; Rejmánek, 2018; Knapp et al., 2021; NatureServe, 2026 [as sole record]); 1960 (Riplkey, 1975:46; Smith & York, 1984:2 [as unconfirmed]; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025); 1960's (Knapp et al., 2021:S1 [as unconfirmed])

"A similar plant was collected along the road to McClure’s Beach in the 1960s, but was not preserved for verification."

(Knapp et al., 2021:S1)

Distribution & Habitat

Point Reyes, California, USA

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Media

References

Albani Rocchetti, Giulia, Carta, Angelino, Mondoni, Andrea, Godefroid, Sandrine, Davis, Charles C., Caneva, Giulia, Albrecht, Matthew A., Alvarado, Karla, Bijmoer, Roxali, Borosova, Renata, Bräuchler, Christian, Breman, Elinor, Briggs, Marie, Buord, Stephane, Cave, Lynette H., Da Silva, Nílber Gonçalves, Davey, Alexandra H., Davies, Rachael M., Dickie, John B., Fabillo, Melodina, Fleischmann, Andreas, Franks, Andrew, Hall, Geoffrey, Kantvilas, Gintaras, Klak, Cornelia, Liu, Udayangani, Medina, Leopoldo, Reinhammar, Lars Gunnar, Sebola, Ramagwai J., Schönberger, Ines, Sweeney, Patrick, Voglmayr, Hermann, White, Adam, Wieringa, Jan J., Zippel, Elke Zippel and Abeli, Thomas. (2022). Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria. Nature Plants 8: 1385-1393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01296-7 [Supplementary Tables S1-S6]

Baldwin, B. B., Goldman, D. H., Keil, D. J., Patterson, R., Rosatti, T., and Wilken, D. (2012). The Jepson Manual, Vascular Plants of California second edition. Univ. California Press. 1568 pp.

Christenhusz, M. and Govaerts, R. (2023). Uitgestorven. Op plantenjacht rond de wereld: 1-511. Sterck & De Vreese.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2025). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 207(3): 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]

CPC. (1990). Centre for plant conservation data for North American plants database. CPC, Centre for plant conservation.

Egger, M. J, Zika, P. F., Wilson, B. L., Brainerd, R.E., Otting, N. (2019). Castilleja, pp. 565-665. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+, Flora of North America North of Mexico. 19+ vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 17.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). (2019). Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 17: Magnoliophyta: Tetrachondraceae to Orobanchaceae. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxiv + 737 pp.

Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.

Hickman, J. C. (ed.). (1993). The Jepson Manual: Higher plants of California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]

Knapp, Wesley M., Frances, Anne, Noss, Reed, Naczi, Robert F. C., Weakley, Alan, Gann, George D., Baldwin, Bruce G., Miller, James, McIntyre, Patrick, Mishler, Brent D., Moore, Gerry, Olmstead, Richard G., Strong, Anna, Gluesenkamp, Daniel and Kennedy, Kathryn. (2020). Regional records improve data quality in determining plant extinction rates. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4: 512-514. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1146-1

Knapp, Wesley M., Frances, Anne, Noss, Reed, Naczi, Robert F. C., Weakley, Alan, Gann, George D., Baldwin, Bruce G., Miller, James, McIntyre, Patrick, Mishler, Brent D., Moore, Gerry, Olmstead, Richard G., Strong, Anna, Kennedy, Kathryn, Heidel, Bonnie and Gluesenkamp, Daniel. (2021). Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada. Conservation Biology 35(1): 360-368. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13621 [Supporting Information (Appendix S1)]

Le Roux, Johannes J., Hui, C., Castillo, M. L., Iriondo, J. M., Keet, J.-H., Khapugin, A. A., Médail, F., Rejmánek, M., Theron, G. Yannelli, F. A. and Hirsch, H. (2019). Recent Anthropogenic Plant Extinctions Differ in Biodiversity Hotspots and Coldspots. Current Biology 29(17): 2912-2918.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.063

Munz, P. and Keck, D. (1963). A California Flora. University of California Press. 1681 pp.

NatureServe. (2026). Castilleja leschkeana: Point Reyes Indian-paintbrush. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at: https://explorer.natureserve.org/ [Accessed on 21 August 2026]

POWO. (2018). Plants of the World online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://e-monocot.org/.

POWO. (2023). Castilleja leschkeana J.T.Howell. Plants of the World Online (online resource). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 13 December 2023]

Rejmánek, Marcel. (2018). Vascular plant extinctions in California: A critical assessment. Diversity and Distributions 24(1): 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12665

Ripley, S. Dillon. (1975). Report on endangered and threatened species of the United States. House Document 94-51: 1-200 [46].

Slakey, D., Sims, A. and Bittman, R. (2012). Rare plant status review: Castilleja leschkeana. Joint status review by the California Native Plant Society and California Natural Diversity Database. Oct. 23, 2012.

Smith, James Payne, Jnr. (ed.) and York, Richard (DEM). (1984). Inventory of rare and endangered vascular plants of California. Special Publication No. 1 (3rd edition). Berkeley, California: California Native Plant Society. xviii + 174 pp.

WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1992). Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's living resources. London: Chapman & Hall. xx + 594 pp.

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