Biorepository Data Portal

Kearney and Peebles 1969, McDougall 1973, Martin and Hutchins 1980

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Slender-stemmed annuals, erect with few branches, leafy, herbage minutely puberulent, to 30 cm tall. Leaves: Alternate, obovate to lanceolate, acuminate, with entire margins, borne on short petioles, 20-50 mm long. Flowers: Very small, about 3 mm long, blue, subsessile, borne in terminal racemes, sepals 5, the outer 3 herbaceous, the inner 2 petaloid and larger, stamens 6-8, united at the base into a cleft tube. Fruits: Ovate capsule, winged samara, 3-5 mm long and 1-celled. Ecology: Found on limestone substrates, sometimes among Ceanothus, from 4,000-7,500 ft (1372-2286 m); flowering September-October. Notes: Distinguished from similar Polygala by the capsules being 1-celled and indehiscent. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Monnina is named after the Spanish patron of botany Josephus Monninus, while wrightii is named for Charles Wright a 19th century American botanist. Synonyms: Monnina brachystachya, Monnina eriocarpa, Monnina macrostachya var. stenophylla, Pteromonnina wrightii Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011