Paintbrush flowers are, mostly, not flowers. They are colorful ‘bracts’, which are modified leaves. The actual flowers are small, green and mostly surrounded by the colorful bracts. Bract color can vary widely from red to yellow to orange within the same species. These paintbrush plants are fairly common in our upper intertidal meadows. There is another species with purple bracts found in our sub-alpine meadows. Photographer: Bill Eichenlaub