Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Alleghany monkey-flower

ALLEGHANY MONKEY-FLOWER

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Mimulus ringens L.

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 12-50 inches

Family: Phrymaceae - Lopseed Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Stems:

Plants glabrous. Stems ascending to erect, simple or branched distally.

Leaves:

Opposite, sessile, often somewhat clasping; blade elliptic to narrowly lanceolate or lance-oblong, 1.2 to 6 inches long, .4 to 1.4 inch wide, margins serrate or shallowly crenulate, base broadly angled to rounded, apex acute to acuminate.

Inflorescences:

Axillary, flowers usually solitary.

Flowers:

Bisexual, bilaterally symmetric: calyx tubular, .5 to .8 inch, lobes 5, triangular; corolla blue to violet, tube .8 to 1.4 inch; petals 5, 2-lipped, minutely glandular hairy; upper lip often curved out; lower lip pale yellow near base; stamens 4, 2 longer than the others, fused to middle of corolla tube; pistil 1; style 1; stigma 2-lobed.

Fruits:

Fruiting pedicels spreading to ascending, .8 to 2 inches. Capsules ovoid, .3 to .5 inch. Seeds orangish brown, ellipsoid.

Habitat:

Banks of rivers and streams, marshes.

Distribution:

East half of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Mimulus, mimic or comic, alluding to the face-like corolla. Historically placed in Scrophulariaceae, but molecular studies have shown that Mimulus belongs in Phrymaceae.

Alleghany monkey-flower flower