Semi-desert. Openings, lava. Spring.
Zuni-Acoma Trail, El Malpais, New Mexico, April 12, 2007.

This lovely plant can be very abundant along the trail as it was when these photos were taken.  It enjoys both sandy areas and thrives also in old lava flows.  The plants pictured are quite young and will grow typically from six to twelve inches tall and continue flowering for weeks.  Stems are often tinged red and tend to lean outward as the plant elongates and the top gets heavy with flowers and seeds.  G. wrightii appears singly and also in dense clusters.  

The plant takes one of is common names, "Verbena", from untraceable classical Latin sources describing many sacred herbs.  It takes the other common name from the Davis Mountains of Texas.  "Glanula" is Latin for "acorn" and refers to the shape of G. wrightii's seed.

Asa Gray named the plant for Charles Wright (1811-1885), a teacher, surveyor, and plant collector, most notably with the Mexican Boundary Survey.  Umber renamed the plant Glandularia bipinnatifida.  (More biographical information.)

Semi-desert. Openings, lava. Spring.
Zuni-Acoma Trail, El Malpais, New Mexico, April 12, 2007.