Mustang mint is an erect, simple or branched annual growing 1' to 1-1/2' tall with a pleasant minty aroma and opposite, lanceolate to lance-oblong leaves that narrow at both ends.  The stem is purple, glabrous below and glandular pubescent above, and the flowers appear in terminal heads to 1-1/4" across with acute purplish-tipped membranous bracts, a 5-lobed scabrous to pubescent, ciliate-toothed calyx, and a 5-lobed rose-purple corolla with 4 well-exserted stamens.  Locally common in dry places and open, rocky often disturbed sites to as high as 8000' in chaparral and woodland, mustang mint blooms from May to August.  The first picture was taken in the Antelope Valley, and the second in Sycamore Canyon in the Santa Monica Mts.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Monardella 2) lanceolata.
Pronunciation: mon-ar-DEL-la lan-see-oh-LAY-ta.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.