Search / Plant Profile / Monardella douglasii ssp. venosa

Plant Profile

Vein Leaf Monardella (Monardella douglasii ssp. venosa)

The beautiful magenta flowers of veiny monardella can be found from May to July. Photo Credit: Jo-Ann Ordano

Global Rank: T1 - Critically Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Lamiaceae
State: CA
Nature Serve ID: 142654
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 03/06/1993

Description:

Veiny monardella is an annual herb to 0.3 meters tall with purple flowers from May to July. It's known only from six populations in Butte County, in northern California. It was thought to be extinct until its rediscovery in 1992, having been last documented in 1935 in Tuolumne County. The area where veiny monardella was rediscovered, in May 1992, was burned in a wildfire in September 1992, followed by two rainstorms. Four weeks after the fire, abundant seedlings were observed by Barbara Castro of the U.S. Forest Service (Castro and Janeway 1993).

Where is Vein Leaf Monardella (Monardella douglasii ssp. venosa) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Flat to gently sloping terrain in the annual grassland component of a foothill woodland plant community, from 60 to 410 meters elevation. This species occurs only in lenses of dark gray, deeply cracking clay within alluvium derived from Tuscan Mudflow rock outcrops.

Distribution:

Historically known from Butte, Tuolumne and Sutter Counties, California, it's currently known only from Butte County, about 8 km. SE of Chico.

States & Provinces:

Vein Leaf Monardella can be found in California

Which CPC Partners conserve Vein Leaf Monardella (Monardella douglasii ssp. venosa)?

California Botanic Garden

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

University of California Botanical Garden

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, University of California Botanical Garden holds 1 accessions of Monardella venosa in orthodox seed collection. We are uncertain as to how many total seeds are in this collection.

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden holds 4 accessions of Monardella venosa in orthodox seed collection. There are as many as 16389 seeds of this species in their collection - although some may have been used for curation testing or sent to back up.

08/05/2020

Based on an August 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, University of California Botanical Garden has collected 1 seed accessions of Monardella venosa from 1 plant occurrences listed in the California Natural Diversity Database. These collections together emcompass an unknown number of maternal plants

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

Endemic to California, Monardella douglasii ssp. venosa is known only from Butte County and is extirpated in Sutter and Tuolumne Counties. This very rare subspecies is not protected and development proposals exist for one of the two known occurrences.

Holly Forbes

01/01/2010

Sheep and cattle grazing Possible alteration of fire regimes Development

Holly Forbes

01/01/2010

The six populations vary in number of plants each year from less than 10 to 1000 (Castro and Janeway 1993).

Holly Forbes

01/01/2010

None at this time.

Holly Forbes

01/01/2010

The habitat is subject to cattle and sheep grazing.

Holly Forbes

01/01/2010

Demography Environmental parameters Survey for suitable reintroduction sites

Holly Forbes

01/01/2010

Seed collection for long-term storage.