Plant: Small cespitose perennials; woody taproots; stems 2-18(-32) cm tall, slender

Leaves: linear, elliptic, or oblanceolate, 5-15(-30) mm long, 0.5-4 mm wide, spreading

INFLORESCENCE: cymose

Flowers: heterostylous, cymose, subsessile or on pedicels to ca. 6 mm long; corollas 3.5-9.5 mm long, funnelform or salverform, purple, pink, or white

Fruit: FRUITS 1-3 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, thick-walled, 1/8-1/2 inferior, on recurved pedicels; SEEDS 0.7-1.7 mm long with hilar ridge in a cup-shaped concavity

Misc: Rocky slopes, grassland, oak-juniper or ponderosa pine forests; 1200-4000m (4000-13000 ft); May-Oct

REFERENCES: Terrell, Edward E. 1995 Rubiaceae. Houstonia. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 29(l): 36.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous perennial, mat forming or growing in tufts or clumps with slender, leafy stems, arising from a woody taproot.

Leaves: Narrowly oblanceolate, lanceolate, or linear, opposite, spreading or ascending.

Flowers: Small, purple, white or pink, trumpet-shaped with a narrow throat not more than twice as long as the 4 lanceolate corolla lobes, subsessile or borne in a cymose inflorescence, the 4 calyx teeth awl-shaped.

Fruits: Capsules thick-walled, borne on recurved pedicels. Seeds with a raised ridge within a cup-shaped cavity.

Ecology: Found in dry, sandy soils on mesas, slopes, and among chaparral, oak, pines, or grassy meadows, from 5,000-8,500 ft (1524-2591 m); flowering May-September.

Notes: The keys to this species are the leafy stems and the pink, white, or purple flowers with the corolla tube not more than twice as long as the lobes.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Houstonia is named for William Houstoun a British physician, while wrightii is named for the American botanical collector Charles Wright (1811-1885).

Synonyms: Hedyotis wrightii, Heyotis pygmaea, H. cervantesii, Ereicoctis cervantesii

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011