Monnina wrightii is mostly single stemmed to a terminal spike-like inflorescence, really a raceme of very small purple flowers. The leaves are lanceolate. The capsules form to the bottom of the inflorescence and are single celled. Monnina wrightii is found growing in the open on slopes and in meadows at middle to upper elevations.

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