Chaparral Beardtongue is restricted to seasonally dry habitats such as chaparral and woodland scrub in the mountains and desert ranges of southern California. Its small leaves are drought deciduous. That is, leaf drop is triggered by lack of water and not by seasonal temperature change. Following the winter rains, each shrub may produce several hundred flowers that are flushed with brownish-red. The corolla is two-lipped. The upper lip forms a hood and the lower one opens like a hungry mouth with two sagging jowls. The hairy "tongue" that projects from the flower is a sterile stamen called a staminode. The four fertile stamens reach upwards toward the hood.
DISTRIBUTION: Scrub and woodland from the San Bernardino Mts. and Peninsular Ranges east to the desert; 100-1600 m.
