''Condea emoryi'' (synonym ''Hyptis emoryi)'', the desert lavender, is a large, multi-stemmed

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil (herb), ba ...

, the mint family. It is one of the favored plants of

honeybee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the c ...

s in early spring in the southwest deserts of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Description

Desert lavender is a medium to tall cold tender perennial shrub found in the

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and northwestern Mexico in

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

and

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. It is a multi-stemmed shrub reaching 8–12 ft in optimum locations. It has violet-blue flowers up to 1 in, in leaf axils. The flowers are profuse along the main stem and side branches and is an

aromatic In organic chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property describing the way in which a conjugated system, conjugated ring of unsaturated bonds, lone pairs, or empty orbitals exhibits a stabilization stronger than would be expected from conjugati ...

attractor of the honeybee and other species. Leaves are oval and a whitish gray-green-(in deserts), serrated margins, hairy, and 2–3 in. It is found in dry washes, and on rocky slopes, up to 3280 ft (1000 m). It is evergreen or cold deciduous, depending on location. File:Hyptis emoryi.jpg, '' Hyptis emoryi'' at Santa Rosa Mountains File:Condea emoryi 109409802.jpg, '' Hyptis emoryi'' File:Hyptis emoryi 1.jpg, '' Hyptis emoryi'' in wash east of the

Dead Mountains The Dead Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. The range borders the tri-state intersection of Nevada, Arizona and California, and the Mohave Valley, with the Fort Mojave Indian ...

Taxonomy

Hyptis ''Hyptis'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in al ...

'' was demonstrated to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

on the basis of evidence from nuclear and plastid DNA. The new

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: * Circumscribed circle * Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthr ...

excluded ''Hyptis emoryi'', which was transferred to '' Condea.''

Distribution and habitat

It occurs mostly in areas with a water source; in the southwestern US deserts it is commonly in the dry washes, intermixed with other species. In the ''"

creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush, greasewood, and chaparral is a medicinal herb. In Sonora, it is more commonly called ''hediondilla''; Spanish ''hediondo'' = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific ...

scrub"''

Yuma Desert The Yuma Desert is a lower-elevation section of the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States and the northwest of Mexico. It lies in the Salton Sink, Salton basin. The desert contains areas of sparse vegetation and has notable areas of Dune ...

-(western Sonoran Desert) of southwest Arizona, it is found with the palo verde, '' Bebbia'', ''

Encelia farinosa ''Encelia farinosa'' (commonly known as brittlebush, brittlebrush, or incienso), is a common desert shrub of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It has a variety of historical uses. Description Brittlebush grows up to tall, wi ...

'', desert ironwood (''

Olneya tesota ''Olneya tesota'' is a perennial flowering tree of the family Fabaceae, legumes (peas, beans, etc.), which is commonly known as ironwood, desert ironwood, or palo fierro in Spanish. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Olneya''. This t ...

''), '' Lycium andersonii'' (wolfberry or Anderson thornbush), '' Psorothamnus spinosus'' (a type of smoke tree), and ''

Acacia greggii ''Senegalia greggii'', formerly known as ''Acacia greggii'', is a species of tree in the genus ''Senegalia'' native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, from the extreme south of Utah south through southern Nevada, southeast Cal ...

'', as some common associated species of the washes, elevation dependent. In Arizona, found from central to southwestern Arizona of the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

; in northwest Arizona found in regions of the Mojave Desert. In southern California and Nevada, desert lavender is found in southern regions of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

and the

Colorado Desert The Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to ...

of southeast California. File:Hyptis emoryi 4.jpg, '' Hyptis emoryi'' in wash east of the

File:Apis mellifera (Honey Bee) in Anza Borrego Desert on Desert Lavender (Hyptis emoryi).png, ''Apis mellifera'' in Anza Borrego Desert on '' Hyptis emoryi'' File:Hyptis emoryi1.jpg, '' Hyptis emoryi'' in

Anza Borrego Desert State Park Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (, '' AN-zə bə-RAY-goh'') is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of Southern California, United States. Created in 1932, the park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bau ...

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA: NRCS: Plants Profile ''Hyptis emoryi''Arizona county rangeCaliforniaNevada
*
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center – The University of Texas at Austin
– Lady Bird Johnson–''"Wildflower Center"''
Photo-stems & flowers
– desert-tropicals.com–''"Desert Tropicals"''
Photo: Rocky wash
w/Bebbia-(dried), Brittlebush-in yellow bloom, and

Saguaro The saguaro ( , ; ''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains ...

on plain
Article, Synopsis, and photo gallery
– delange.org—''"Arizona Wild Flowers"'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q5962178 Lamiaceae Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Northwestern Mexico North American desert flora