Hybanthus verticillatus  Desert Violet, Baby Slippers
PERENNIAL HERB.  Stringy or weakly shrubby stems with narrow, grasslike, alternate leaves.  Plant is smooth and almost succulent.  Tiny urn-shaped purple flowers have a single prominent yellow and white petal.  Flowerstalks arise from leaf axils and are abruptly curved at the end, so flowers hang upside down.  In the Empires, rare in seasonally damp disturbed silty gravel in dirt roads, cow tanks, etc.
FAMILY:  Violaceae (Violet Family)