Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Sharp-wing monkey-flower

SHARP-WING MONKEY-FLOWER

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Mimulus alatus Aiton

Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri

Perennial

Height: 12-32 inches

Family: Scrophulariaceae - Figwort Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Also Called:

Winged monkey-flower.

Stems:

Ascending to erect, simple or branched above, 4-angled, glabrous; angles narrow-winged; branches spreading or ascending.

Leaves:

Opposite, broadly ovate to broadly lanceolate, 1.2 to 4.8 inches long, .4 to 2.2 inches wide, glabrous; margins toothed; tip pointed; base tapering to narrowly-winged stalk .1 to 1.2 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Pairs of flowers in leaf axils; stalks ascending, 1/12 to 1/3 inch long at flowering, longer in fruit.

Flowers:

Calyx 2/5 to 3/5 inch long, minutely pubescent within, tube strongly 5-angled; lobes 5, more or less equal, broad, tips bristle-like; corolla strongly 2-lipped, lavender, white, or purplish-blue; upper lip erect to reflexed, 2-lobed, .8 to 1.3 inch long; lower lip spreading, 3-lobed, glandular-hairy; throat with 2 elevated, yellowish ridges (palate) nearly closing throat; stamens 4, in 2 pairs of unequal length, included; style 2-lobed, included.

Fruits:

Capsule, egg-shaped, 1/3 to 2/5 inch long, 2-celled, enclosed in persistent calyx; seeds numerous, tiny, oblong, light-brown.

Habitat:

Moist woods, stream banks, margins of lakes, marshy areas; partial shade; wet soil.

Distribution:

East third of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Comments:

From Latin mimulus, diminutive of mimus, to "mimic" or "buffoon", alluding to the face of the corolla grinning and Latin alatus "winged".

Sharp-wing monkey-flower corolla