Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Slender, erect, annual or biennial with 1 to several branches 10-80 cm long from base, stems and leaves glabrous, dark green.

Leaves: Glabrous, dark green, rather densely leafy below, pedunculate-racemose above; leaves of sterile stems crowded, ovate, elliptic or linear, entire, obtuse to acute at both ends, 1-3 mm wide, 3-20 mm long, petioles 1-2 mm long; leaves on fertile stems linear to linear-oblong, opposite or ternate at base of stem; alternate above, entire, acute or obtuse, sessile, 1-3 mm wide, 5-30 mm long.

Flowers: Raceme spikelike, 5-30 cm long, on peduncles 2-15 cm long, pedicels filiform, 2-10 mm long, glabrous or finely and sparsely glandular-puberulent, bracts subulate .5-2 mm long, calyx lobes lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, corolla pale blue with darker veins, 9-12 mm long (exclusive of spur); upper lip 4-5 mm long, reflexed, oblong lobes 2-3 mm long, lower lip deflexed-spreading; palate prominent, densely pubescent.

Fruits: Capsule globose to subcylindrical 2.5-4 mm long, irregularly dehiscent.

Ecology: Found on arroyos, stream banks, and on grassy hillsides or in open chaparral; 1,500-5,000 ft (457-1524 m); flowers March-June.

Distribution: Much of western N. America, most states in the US except the east coast; south to n MEX and in S. Amer.

Notes: Distinct in our area by being an erect biennial with dense leaves below compared to above and spikes of purple, blue or white, two-lipped flowers with long nectar spurs coming out of the backsdes. Often found in cracks in rocks and in slightly wetter microsites.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Nuttallanthus is named for Thomas Nuttal (1786-1859) an English botanist.

Synonyms: Linaria canadensis var. texana, L. texana

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015