Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Perennial herbaceous vine from a woody base; stems twining, 3-8 m long, slender, glabrous, and much-branched, especially at the base.
Leaves: Alternate to subopposite along the stems, on flexuous petioles about the same length as the leaf blades; blades hastate or triangular-hastate, 2-6 cm long, not quite as wide as long, and palmately veined.
Flowers: Purple, 2-lipped, and showy; solitary in the leaf axils on pedicels 1-4 cm long; calyx cup-shaped at the base and divided into 5 long-pointed teeth at the top; corolla 2-lipped, 2-3 cm long, blue, purple or nearly white, gibbous or saccate (sack-shaped) at the base.
Fruits: Capsules globose, 6-8 mm long, enclosed by the expanded, reticulate (net-veined) calyx; capsule splits open by 2 slits to release many tiny dark brown winged seeds, about 1 mm long.
Ecology: Found in sandy soils in desert grasslands, from 4,000-6,000 ft (1219-1829 m); flowers May-September.
Distribution: w TX to se AZ; south to MEX
Notes: This striking snapdragon vine is found climbing over shrubs in dry sandy habitats. It appears quite similar to its more common congener Maurandya antirhiniflora, which is more often found in moist riparian habitats and on shaded slopes. Distinguish the two species based on the leaf size (15-25 mm long in M. antirhiniflora, vs. usually 30-50 mm long in this species) and the flowers (M. antirhiniflora has a yellow patch inside the throat of the flower, while this species lacks the yellow patch and has pure blue to purple flowers.) Traditionally placed within the snapdragon family, Scrophulariaceae. That family was split apart based on molecular evidence, and this genus was placed in the plantain family, Plantaginaceae, along with Penstemon.
Ethnobotany: Unknown
Etymology: Maurandya is named for Catalina Pancratia Maurandy, a Spanish botanist of the late 18th century; wislizeni honors Freidrich Adolph Wislizenus (1810-1889), a St. Louis-based physician who collected plants in the American West.
Synonyms: Epixiphium wislizenii, Antirrhinum wislizeni, Asarina wislizeni
Editor: AHazelton 2017
