Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, erect, angled and sparingly branched, glabrous, 5-55 cm tall.

Leaves: Opposite, the upper leaves oblong, the lower leaves spatulate or obovate, margins entire, lower leaves on short petioles, upper leaves sessile, 2-6 cm long below.

Flowers: Small, deep pink, corollas 1.5-3.5 mm long, 2-lipped and narrowly funnelform, lower lip with 2 red spots, spur slender, pointed, inflorescences borne in dense, terminal or subterminal clusters, often forming narrow, interrupted panicles.

Fruits: Achenes, keeled and grooved on the convex side, winged on the concave side, wing margins thick, grooved lengthwise.

Ecology: Found in deep to partially shaded slopes below 5,500 ft (1676 m), flowers February-May.

Distribution: Ranges across the lower Sonoran Desert, north to Washington state and into Baja California.

Notes: Distinctive with its annual habit, glabrous herbage, opposite leaves and deep purple, funnelform corolla that is borne in a complex, dense cluster.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Plectritis is from the Latin plecto to plait, a reference to the complex inflorescence, while ciliosa means ciliate.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher and SBuckley, 2011