British Columbia: ID Please; Long Beach, Tofino

ID Please, for my lecture.
This red leafed plant is growing, on a rock at the beach, along the Pacific. The name of place is Long Beach, south of Tofino, Vancouver Island. I took the picture April 2019.

 

I believe these are the most variable of paintbrushes, Castilleja miniata. See: Castilleja miniata Douglas ex. Hook. var. miniata

If you disagree, we can ask Mark Egger (photographer from the link above and author of the Flora of North America treatment) to check.

 

Thank You Daniel. It's very kind of you to support me.
Well I don't know at all. I think Castilleja miniata has the orange color at the top only. The plant on my foto has the color on every leaf. So do you know Mark Egger?

 

Yes. I will ask. Your photo only has the leaves at the base, but it has been my observation that these coastal (as in, directly on the coast) paintbrushes often have purplish and finely-leaved foliage. The ones in his photographs are mostly in bloom.

 

OK I agre in that

 

My wild guess would be a Petasites frigidus

 

My point is, that it is likely a member of a daisy family, an early flowering one (like Coltsfoots).

 

Well, my memory isn't quite what it used to be. I do have photos of purple-leaved Castilleja along BC beaches, but all with simple leaves and taller plants. Hmm. I am not certain about Asteraceae, though.

 

Ok, here's the response from Mark. I was in the ballpark with the correct family:

I've passed along our thanks to him. Do note that this represents an (undocumented to-date) 100km range extension for the species along the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is why I had discounted it early on.

 

Mark nailed it!
A parasitic plant would be my second guess.

 

Thank You everyone who has joined in. It's very kind of you. And I think Mark gave the name too. By the way it's a very interesting plant, look about it's pollination strategi:

From Wikipedia: To increase the chances of cross pollination, at any point of time during the flowering season, only three flowers will have matured on each individual plant. Two of these flowers mature their anthers first while the remaining flower matures its stigma."