Harsh Paintbrush
This is probably one of the most common paintbrush flowers that you'll encounter when hiking in the drier areas of the state, but it can be one of the loveliest too. Most that you'll come across are a darker, middle orange, but this particular trail had a good number of these intensely bright yellow-orange forms.
Harsh paintbrush is a colorful perennial wildflower found across much of the west. It consists of a cluster of hairy (hispid) stems arising 20 to 60 cm tall from a woody base. The stems are primarily unbranched and most often fairly villous or hairy. The leaves are narrowly to broadly lanceolate with the lower leaves entire and reduced in size while the upper ones larger, narrower and often with one or two pairs of lateral lobes. Occasionally the leaves are all entire margined. The inflorescence.. more
