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How do paintbrushes collect poisons from other plants?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

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April 4, 2002

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The paintbrushes are hemiparasites—plants capable of photosynthesizing on their own, but developing better when taking nutrients from another plant. A root of a paintbrush connects to a root of its host by a specialized structure called a haustorium.

Field of Texas Blue Bonnets and Indian Paintbrush, Texas Hill Country, Texas, USA

Texas Paintbrush Castilleja indivisa, Bluebonnets Lupinus texensis
Field of Texas Blue Bonnets and Indian Paintbrush, Texas Hill Country, Texas, USA Photographic Print Darrell Gulin Buy Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

Most wildflower gardeners find the paintbrushes difficult to establish. When host plants are not present or well-established, the paintbrushes live for a short time, then dwindle away.

In a study done by Lynn S. Adler with the University of California, Davis and Michael Wink with the University of Heidelberg, it appears that the paintbrushes gain more than nutrients. One perennial species of paintbrush (Castilleja miniata Douglas) [kas til lee' ya min ee ah' ta] and an annual species (Castilleja indivisa Engelmann) [in de vi' sa] were selected to examine what nutrients the plants gain from their hosts.

Texas Paintbrush Castilleja indivisa
Indian Paint Brush Near Gay Hill, Texas, USA Photographic Print Darrell Gulin
Buy Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

If these paintbrushes parasitized lupines (Lupinus argenteus Pursh and L. texensis Hooker respectively), they gained nutrients and the alkaloids that protect the lupines from herbivores. When a plant that is normally not poisonous becomes poisonous, what happens to the pollinators and herbivores that need that plant for food?

The paintbrushes partition the alkaloids. The alkaloids could be found in the leaves, stems, roots, parts of the inflorescences, and seeds, but none in the corolla (petals) and very little in the nectar. The hummingbirds that feed on paintbrush nectar and pollinate the plants were safe from poisoning. But the insects that feed on the rest of the plant or eat the seeds were not.

The University of British Columbia Botanical Garden has a photograph of the perennial Castilleja miniata. To view the photograph, click on the link:

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=574

Keir's Botanical Photo Archive has a gorgeous photograph of Lupinus argenteus, a host plant for C. miniata. To view the photograph, click on the link:

http://www.keiriosity.com/fabaceae/lupinus_argenteus.htm

Texas A & M University has a photograph of the annual Castilleja indivisa. To view the photograph, click on the link:

http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/LCP/LCP6.JPG

To view the photograph of the Texas bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis, a host for C. indivisa, click on the link:

http://uvalde.tamu.edu/herbarium/lute.htm

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