Flaxleaf Monardella

Monardella linoides

Color: Lavender to purple

Common name: Flaxleaf Monardella and Willowy Monardella.

Latin name: Monardella linoides

Family: LAMIACEAE

Height: 2.5 feet

Description: Monardella linoides is a gray-green perennial herb producing a silvery to ash-gray slender erect stem with densely matted hairs. The inflorescence is a head of several flowers blooming in a cup of pale whitish or pink-tinged papery bracts 2 or 3 centimeters wide. The flowers are just over a centimeter long and light purple in color.

Leaf: The linear to oval fragrant leaves are 1 to 4 centimeters long and coated in grayish hairs.

Range: Mojave Desert, s High Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountain Area, s South Coast, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, sw Peninsular Ranges, San Jacinto Mountains, East of Sierra Nevada

Habitat: Desert scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland, open conifer forest, subalpine

Elevation: 900–3100 m.

Flowering time: May-Jun

Notes: Monardella linoides is a dicot that is native to California and is found only slightly beyond California borders. This photo was taken on July 22, 2006 in the Bald Mountains Botanical Area, Kern County, California.

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The Desert Environment
The North American Deserts
Desert Geological Terms