Pink Paint-Brush. Escobita
Orthocarpus Purpurascens, Benth. Figwort Family
Stems.—Six to twelve inches high. Leaves.—Variously parted into filiform divisions. Bracts.—About equaling the flowers; tipped with crimson or pale pink. Corolla.—About an inch long; the lower lip only moderately inflated and three-saccate; the upper long, hooked, bearded, crimson. Stigma.—Large. (See Orthocarpus.) Hab.—Widely distributed.
The bright-magenta tufts of the pink paint-brush are often so abundant that they give the country a purplish hue for miles at a stretch. The Spanish-Californians have a pretty name for these blossoms, calling them “escobitas,” meaning “little whisk-brooms.”
O. densiflorus, Benth., is a very similar species; but its corolla has a straight upper lip, without hairs.