In California it is known only from the San Ysidro Mountains, where it grows in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and other local habitat.

It grows in rock cracks and crevices, sometimes in intermittent streams that may flood with winter rains.

Monardella stoneana, a rare plant, is a low, compact subshrub with strongly aromatic foliage.

They are lined with lance-shaped leaves with green or purple-tinged blades up to 3.5 centimeters long by 1 wide.

The flowers have tubular corollas tinged pale pink or bluish with long stamens emerging from the centers.