I am doing a volunteer project at the top of the tram here in Palm Springs California photographing the flowers and developing a guide for the other volunteers. This small plant has me completely stumped Picture attatched As you can see in the picture what at first glance looks like the plant with white flowers is really the flower with the small green leaves being the plant. For scale notice the pine needles in the picture. (Jeffery Pine) They are growing in a sandy, partially open area at 8500 feet on Mt San Jacinto.Riverside County in Southern California I can find nothing resembling them and attempting to key it out in an old Jepson has gone nowhere. Is it an Asteraceae or am I way off? I have several photos and all were taken with an 8 megapixel camera so I can supply additional detail. I intend to collect a herbarium specimen tomorrow. Help!! Allen Keeney
Here are some more pictures one a close up from last week and the rest from a specimen gathered today. As you will notice the flowers are past maturity today.
After some searching, I have it: Monardella nana, a member of the mint family and a California and Baja California endemic. I can only guess at the subspecies, perhaps subspecies nana, but please don't hold me to that. Here are some references: Monardella nana subsp. nana via Calflora.net If this link doesn't break, here are the specimens records for Monardella from Riverside County Cool plant. I hope the local population was healthy - seems to be, based off of the herbarium records and your photos.
Thank you very much that one had me completly stumped. The population is healthy but small. I got GPS coordinates on it so I can monitor it in comming years. It and Hulsea vestita are growing side by side. This may be a good year for plants rarely seen as we are having a wet year after several years of drought. Allen