Monardella purpurea

Siskiyou monardella, Siskiyou Monardella

Family: Lamiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Siskiyou monardella is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, and San Francisco Bay Area on rocky serpentine slopes in chaparral, woodland, and montane forest at elevations of 400 to 1,400 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces rose or purple flowers in compact clusters 15 to 25 millimeters wide, with distinctive dark purple bracts. Growing as an erect, open subshrub 10 to 40 centimeters tall with shiny dark purple stems, it has a striking appearance in its native habitat. Its leathery lance-oblong leaves are 12 to 30 millimeters long, deep purple to green in color, with an entire margin and a glossy surface. The flower clusters feature narrowly lanceolate outer bracts with multicellular cilia, giving the plant a distinctive textured appearance.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, generally on serpentine or related bedrock, chaparral, woodland, montane forest

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 400-1400 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRO, SnFrB

California counties: Del Norte, Marin, San Mateo, Siskiyou, Monterey, Shasta, Trinity, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Alameda, Tehama, Humboldt

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.