Scutellaria potosina var. tessellata

Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Herbaceous perennials, stems square, surfaces with spreading, dense, and often glandular pubescence, stems tufted from a woody caudex. Leaves: Opposite, oval to ovate, 1-2.5 cm long, margins subentire to entire, blades petiolate. Flowers: Blue to purple or lavender, corollas tubular, the limb relatively short, lateral limbs more or less joined with the upper lip to form a galea, styles and stamens included within the hood of the galea, stamens 4, in pairs, flowers borne axillary in the upper part of the plant or in lateral racemes and subtended by leaflike bracts. Fruits: Nutlets 4, black, evenly and closely tuberculate. Ecology: Found from 2,500-5,500 ft (762-1676 m); flowering April-August. Distribution: Arizona; Mexico. Ethnobotany: Specific uses for the variety are unknown, but other species in the genus have uses. Synonyms: Scutellaria potosina subsp. parviflora, Scutellaria potosina subsp. potosina Scutellaria tessellata Editor: LCrumbacher2012 Etymology: Scutellaria comes from the Latin scutella, "a small dish, tray or platter," and referring to the sepals which appear this way during the fruiting period, while potosina means of or from San Luis Potosi, Mexico and tessellata means tessellate or checkered, patterned like a mosaic, in allusion to the arrangement of warts on the back of the nutlets.