Unlike most paintbrushes, this large-scale species reaches 3 1/2-feet tall (1 m) with multiple stems and showy spikes of flowers with red to orangish bracts. The stems are hairless or with short hairs, and gray-green aging to purplish-red. Note the narrow leaves roll inward along midrib, and the small, beak-like, bright-green flowers extend considerably beyond the red bracts. Though the leaves photosynthesize, the roots are parasitic, usually on shrubby species of sagebrush,  Artemisia species.

FLOWERS: April–October. A loose spike 2–8-inches (5–20 cm) long with short, woolly hairs is lined with flowers with red or red-tipped bracts 5/8–1 1/4-inches (15–30 mm) long, lance-shaped, and with 3 narrow lobes; the green, beak-like flower has a red margin and extends 3/8–1 inch (10-24 mm) beyond the red sepal tube (calyx) and bracts.

LEAVES: Alternate. Linear, narrow, 3/4–2 3/8-inches (2–6 cm) long, unlobed or upper ones with 2–3 narrow lobes; margins often curl inward, surfaces mostly hairless.

HABITAT: Dry plains, sagebrush scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa, fir-aspen forests.

Elevation 4,300–10,450 feet (1319–3165 m).

RANGE: Widespread in Rocky Mountain states and westward. State flower of Wyoming.

SIMILAR SPECIES: About 21 species of paintbrush in NM. The clumps of tall, reddish stems and narrow, linear leaves help identify this species.

NM COUNTIES: Dry mid-elevation habitats in the western 2/3 of NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.