Species: Castilleja cervina

Deer Indian Paintbrush is a perennial, hemiparasitic herb with clustered, erect, branched stems that are 3-6 dm high and which arise from a branched rootcrown. The lower leaves are linear and entire-margined, while the upper leaves have a pair of spreading lobes. Foliage is glabrous or has minute, curled hairs. Flowers are borne in a spike at the top of the stems. Each flower is subtended by a 3-5-lobed leaf-like bract, which is broader than the leaves with yellowish tips. The yellow, tubular corolla, 18-25 mm long, tapers to a short hood, or galea, above and to 3 small lobes below. The tubular calyx, 15-20 mm long, surrounds the corolla and is cleft more deeply below than above; each of the lateral lobes divide again into 2 pointed lobes which are 2-3 mm long. The fruit is a capsule with many tiny seeds.