Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Scrophulariales

Family: Scrophulariaceae -- figwort

Common Name: common monkeyflower, seep monkeyflower

Species Code: MIGU

Origin: Native to wet places of North American from Alaska to California and east to Saskatchewan and New Mexico with disjunct populations (possibly introduced) farther east.

Rare: no

Form: forb, annual or more commonly perennial from stolons or rhizomes; stems variable from stout and erect to weak and trailing, simple or branched, 10-80 cm tall, glabrous or sparsely hairy above.

Mature height: 4-32 inches

Duration: perennial but may act as an annual on vernal seeps.

Longevity: short-lived

Habitat Type: wetland

Wetland Indicator Status: OBL

Leaves: opposite, somewhat succulent, glabrous or thinly pubescent, irregularly and coarsely dentate, ovate to rotund, with 3-7 main veins from the base; lower leaves petiolate, becoming sessile upward and reduced to bracts in the inflorescence.

Flowers: borne in terminal racemes on long pedicels; calyx 5 toothed, accrescent, irregular, smooth or minutely hairy, 6-17 mm long in flower; corolla yellow, often with red spots on the palate, tubular, 1-4 cm long, bilabiate with a flaring throat, the upper lip 2-lobed, the lower 3-lobed; sometimes cleistogamous.

Flower color: yellow

Bloom: June, July, August

Bloom starts on: early June

Bloom ends on: late July, into August on sites where moisture is still available

Fruit: capsule, broadly oblong or ellipsoid, 5-12 mm long; seeds numerous, 0.2-0.3 mm long, brown.

Characteristics:
M. langsdorfi in Piper & Beattie 1914. St. John (1963) recognized 2 varieties locally, var. guttatus and var. gracilius.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
A highly variable species which has been divided into a large number of species and infraspecific taxa. Current practice is to reduce them all to a long list of synonyms. Populations tend to be distinct because of vegetative reproduction and self pollination.
4,000,000 (USDA NRCS Plants Database 2009).
n=14, 15, 16, 24, 28 (Baldwin et al 2004).
x=7 (University of British Columbia 2003).
California plants are mostly pollinated by bumblebees (Bombus spp.) (Kiang 1972). Utah plants are pollinated by solitary bees (Waser et al 1982). Some flies (Diptera) and butterflies (Lepidoptera) may also pollinate the flowers (Leclerc-Potvin & Ritland 1994). Dole (1990) suggested flowers which have not been insect pollinated can self pollinate when the shedding of the corolla forces the anthers to brush against the stigma. Leclerc-Potvin & Ritland (1994), however, found no evidence of this.
Flowers are perfect.
Polyploidy is present.
Leaves are edible and have been used medicinally.
Fruit is a capsule.
Flowers are protogynous (Leclerc-Potvin & Ritland 1994). Individual flowers are protogynous but geitonogamy occurs when pollinators visit many flowers on a single plant or a nearby clonal offspring (Kiang 1972). Flowers are self compatible and outcrossing also occurs (ibid).
Seeds can be dispersed long distances by water but only short distances by wind (Waser et al 1982). Pollen distribution by insects is localized in a population (ibid).
Grazed by deer and other mammals (Guard 1995). Muskrats eat the plants (Craighead et al 1963).

Comments: Mimulus guttatus has been introduced to Eastern North American, Europe, and New Zealand, and is considered an invasive species (van Kleunen 2003).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: obligate wetland species

Precipitation: the USDA NRCS PLANTS Database (2009) has it at 10-24 inches, but that seems of little relevance for an obligate wetland species.

Fire: probably protected from fire by the wetland habitat unless the wetland dries out later in the season.

Sowing time: spring

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: none required

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: first season

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: very small

Seed harvest date: August

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Keywords: native perennial wetland forb

Propagation:
2 protocols in the Native Plant Network
Golden Gate National Parks, California
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Other Propagation Information:
Seeds germinate easily (Kruckeberg 1996).
No pretreatment required (Young & Young 1986).
Stem cuttings root with bottom heat (Mirov 1939).
Germinates in dark or in alternating light/dark with alternating temperatures of 30/20^oC (Maguire & Overland 1959).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.

Notes: Mimulus guttatus has tiny red spots on yellow snapdragon-like flowers. Easy to grow from seed without any pretreatment. Also spreads by stolons. It is an obligate wetland plant and needs to be grown in a seep area or on the edge of a stream or pond. Will not survive on upland sites. Common names include yellow monkey-flower, common monkey-flower (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 12/1/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Dole, Jeffery A. 1990. Role of Corolla Abscission in Delayed Self-pollination of Mimulus guttatus (Scrophulariaceae). American Journal of Botany 77:1505-1507.

Guard, B. Jennifer. 1995. Wetland Plants of Oregon and Washington. Lone Pine Publishing. Renton, WA.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Kiang, Y.T. 1972. Pollination Study in a Natural Population of Mimulus guttatus. Evolution 26:308-310.

Kruckeberg, Arthur R. 1996. Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

Leclerc-Potvin, Carole, and Kermit Ritland. 1994. Modes of Self-Fertilization in Mimulus guttatus (Scrophulariaceae): A Field Experiment. American Journal of Botany 81:199-205.

Maguire, James D., and Alvin Overland. 1959. Laboratory Germination of Seeds of Weedy and Native Plants. Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 349, Pullman, WA. 15 p.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 1 December 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

van Kleunen, Mark. 2003. Solidago canadensis: a North American Native Plant Invading Europe. Menziesia, Newsletter of the NPSBC Native Plant Society of British Columbia 8(3):8-9. Accessed online 12/3/09 at http://www.npsbc.org/Newsletter/Menziesia03Summer.pdf

Waser, Nickolas M., Robert K. Vickery, and Mary V. Price. 1982. Patterns of Seed Dispersal and Population Differentiation in Mimulus guttatus. Evolution 36:753-761.

Young, James A., and Cheryl G. Young. 1986. Collecting, Processing and Germinating Seeds of Wildland Plants. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium