![]() Mowing too soon will greatly reduce the number of plants the following year because they must reseed each year. Because Indian paintbrush is an annual, do not mow existing paintbrush plants until they have completed their bloom and dried up entirely. Seeds are also commercially available from local nurseries, Native American Seed, and the Wildflower Farm. ![]() ![]() Indian paintbrush will grow in a wide variety of soils from sandy, sandy loam, medium loam, clay loam and clay. This can be done right after the blooming season or in the fall. Take the plant and crumble it over the area where you would like to establish a new stand. For establishing a new area of paintbrush, carefully collect only a few dried plants from an established population. If you shake it over a piece of paper, you will see the fine seeds. To collect the seeds for next year, pick the entire dead plant. At the end of the blooming season, the plants dry up. Because of this connection with neighboring plants, transplanting Indian paintbrush is difficult. Plants growing with the assistance of host will outgrow a plant without a host. It penetrates the neighboring roots with the root tubes, the haustoria, into the roots of a host plant to obtain nutrients. The roots grow until they touch the roots of the plants around it, usually grasses. Harvesting Indian paintbrush gives even a professional like John Thomas fits because its seeds are so tiny and must be hand-harvested: Twenty Wildseed workers spend three weeks collecting less. While Indian paintbrush can survive on its own, it is actually a hemiparasite or a root parasite. There are over two hundred species variations in North America with colors ranging from white, magenta, purple, red, orange and yellow. Indian paintbrush is found in grasslands and open forest clearings as far north as Alaska. In Texas the blooming season begins in March. The actual flowers are green and hidden under the colorful bracts. These red spikes are actually bracts, a modified or specialized leaf usually associated with the reproductive structure of a plant. Color ranges from orange to red on spikes that resemble a paintbrush. It is a native wildflower in the Figwort family. ![]()
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