Violet twining snapdragon is a glabrous, much-branched perennial with slender twining stems.  The many leaves are alternate, simple, entire, ± triangular, on 1" long flexuous petioles, and hastate to sagittate in shape.  The flowers are solitary on slender pedicels arising from the leaf axils. The calyx has five subequal lobes and the corolla is bilabiate with two rounded upper lobes and three rounded lower lobes, and a palate which almost blocks the corolla throat.  The corolla tube is a pale rose color, the lobes are bright rose to purple and the palate is yellowish-white with dark lines and pubescent. There are 4 stamens, didynamous and included.  The fruit is a subglobose, thin-walled capsule with oblong seeds that have corky, tuberculate ridges.  This lovely species of snapdragon is fairly rare in California, but it may occasionally be found on limestone soils in desert flats and washes, joshua tree woodland and shadscale scrub to 7500' in the Providence Mts and eastern San Bernardino County, blooming from April to May.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Maurandya 2) antirrhiniflora.
Pronunciation: more-AND-ya an-tee-ri-ni-FLOR-a.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.