Few things are what they seem when it comes to coastal paintbrush, a wildflower now making its appearance in Orange County’s native scrublands.

Its red spears poke up amid native shrubs such as buckwheat, black sage and white sage, and it is the most common of several paintbrush species.

Those red spears, however, aren’t really made of flowers. They’re modified leaves, called bracts. The actual flowers — long, thin and yellow — aren’t always visible, though right now paintbrush is blooming and the flowers can be seen.

And the reason it is found among shrubs? Paintbrush is a partial parasite. It can photosynthesize, but also draws nutrients from native shrubs by tapping into their root systems.

Because the paintbrush and the shrubs have evolved together, however, it is not known to cause any real damage to the plants.

The strategy is so successful, in fact, that paintbrushes are found from South America to Canada.

Even the plant’s name has a hidden history. It and other species are still sometimes referred to as “Indian paintbrush,” a name some experts consider demeaning to Native Americans. Best, they say, to stick with “paintbrush.”

Scientific name: Castilleja affinis

Sources: Biology professor Bob Allen, Irvine Valley College and Santa Ana College; “Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coasal & Chaparral Regions of Southern California,” by Nancy Dale.

Next week: Common snipe

Photo by: H. Lorren Au, Jr., the Orange County Register

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