Little Gopher decides to paint pictures of his village but can’t find colors vivid enough. A shaman assures him he has other talents just as valuable. A Native American boy named Little Gopher is too small to run, play, and hunt with his peers. Shrek creator Tomie dePaola’s book “The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush” is much more kid-friendly. From that implement grows the first Indian paintbrush, colored with the blood of the grieving, frightened young girl. She sticks the bloody tool into the ground and leaves, never to return. Using a sharp stick, she cuts a crude likeness of her camp into her leg so she will always remember it. Homesick, she returns, but hears two men discussing how they will kill her when captured. She leaves with him knowing she will be killed for betraying her people. With two origin stories, one, of course, has a dark side.Īn Indian maiden helps a captive escape her village. Safest bet: Leave love to natural chemistry and the chemistry to nature. In areas with alkaline soil, which is certainly true of Central Texas, the plant soaks up selenium, a nutrient needed by the human body but one that can be toxic in certain amounts. Native Americans mixed it in both love charms and poisons. Until its roots latch onto a host - usually field or roadside grasses - the Indian paintbrush supports itself through photosynthesis.Īnother aspect of the Indian paintbrush’s nebulous nature can be found in its uses. These roots reach into the soil until they touch the roots of other plants, penetrating them to suck out the food. The brightly colored wildflower steals water and nutrients from other plants using modified tube-like roots called haustoria. Indian paintbrushes are only semi-parasitic. The broomrape category mostly includes full-on parasites that kill their host plants and have no ability to use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
#Bluebonnets and indian paintbrush tv
Sounds like a mix of Harry Potter magic and the “Law & Order” TV series.įigwort is a catchall for misfit plants. Once a member of the figwort family, the Indian paintbrush was moved by botanists in 2016 into the parasitic broomrape family. Move into the scientific realm, and the names get a bit grim. Second only to the Texas bluebonnet in the Highland Lakes for proliferation and popularity, the Indian paintbrush has other poetic names: painted cup, prairie fire, painted lady, and grandmother’s hair. Bees and hummingbirds, however, easily hover over the plants to get what they need. The bracts make it hard for pollinators that need to land on something to suck up nectar. No, the red (and sometimes orange or yellow) you see are not petals they are bracts, a cup-like, specialized leaf that grows up around a tiny, creamy-yellow flower deep inside each cluster. The name Indian paintbrush might be the most poetic aspect of this semi-parasitic weed that limits pollinators by hiding its flowers.
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