Found in upright clusters reaching 8″ – 12″ (20 -30 mm); plants at higher elevations are usually smaller. As with all castilleja its bracts provide the paint’s distinctive color, in this case greenish yellow, and conceal the tubular flowers. The bracts are divided into five lobes with the center the widest. While usually considered a plant of the shrub-steppe east of the Cascade it can also be found right on the Cascade Crest, the case here.