Mimulus aurantiacus Curtis =Mimulus aurantiacus ssp. australis   =Diplacus aurantiacus Scrophulariaceae              Native San Diego Monkey Flower

                              April Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Subshrub or shrub, glabrous to hairy; stems 10-150 cm., main lf. axils often with clusters of smaller leaves.; lvs. 20-80 mm., linear to obovate; edges gen. rolled under, upper surface glabrous, often sticky, gland-tipped and nonglandular hairs beneath; pedicels 3-30 mm.; calyx tubular, scarcely enlarged upward, 20-37 mm., not swollen at base, glabrous to hairy, lobes unequal, 3-10 mm. acute to acuminate; corolla persistent, white to buff, yellow orange, or red, tube throat 25-60 mm.; placentas parietal; fr. 12-20 mm., splitting only along upper suture.

Habitat: Rocky hillsides, cliffs, canyon slopes, disturbed areas, borders of chaparral, open forest.  California floristic province. Below 1600 meters.  Marcy-July.

Name: Mimulus, diminutive of Latin, mimus, a comic actor because of the grinning corolla.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 806).  N.L. aurant, the color of the orange.  (Jaeger 31). Latin, iacus, adj. termination of Greek names ending in ias. (Jaeger 123).  Aurantiacus, orange, flowered.

General:  Occasional in Big Canyon where it was introduced during the Fletcher Jones Motor Cars mitigation cleanup of the upper half of the canyon to Jamboree Rd.  John Johnson reports that the plant is or was found in the south arm of Big Canyon westerly of Mac Arthur Blvd. and also in Jasmine Canyon.  In March 2001 I found several plants in Santa Ana Heights at the location where the ground was tilled and seeded with wild flowers several years ago.  This area now looks like coastal Sage Scrub while the surrounding ground has only grass and short annual weeds.  (my comments).      The flowers of Mimulus aurantiacus are pollinized by two fly species of the genus Eulonchus in the family Acroceridae.  Both have an extremely long tongue, which folds back beneath the body in repose but hinges forward as the fly probes for nectar in the depths of the tubular Mimulus flowers.  Unpollinized Mimulus flowers have a wide open stigmatic surface, as an acrocerid fly presses deep into a corolla, usually carrying pollen atop its hairy thorax, pollen is deposited on the lower stigmatic fork whereupon the lobes quickly close.  Thus, as the fly withdraws, any new pollen collected on its thorax cannot be deposited on the stigmas and the possibility of self-pollination is reduced.  (Ross, Edward S.  “Insect/Plant Relationships.  A Photographic Essay”  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society. April 1996 pp. 2-22).         Indians used the young stems and leaves of Mimulus spp. for salad greens.  Raw leaves and stems were applied when crushed to rope burns and wounds as a poultice.  (Sweet 55).         About 150 species, mostly of western North America, but also in South America, Asia, Australia, etc. (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 806).         Genetic sequencing of DNA samples has shown that the genus Linaria should be in family Phrymaceae.  (Olmstead, Richard G.  “Whatever Happened to the Scrophulariaceae?”  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society  Vol. 30  No.2  April 2002 p.13-22).            The larvae of the Common Buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia and the Variable Checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas chalcedona,  feed on Monkey Flower plants. (No author, sbnature, a Journal of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Spring 2004/Vol. 2 No. 1, 6-8).

Text Ref: Hickman, Ed. 1040; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 809; Roberts 38.

Photo Ref: Mar-April 99 #24A, 25A, 26A, 28A.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

First Found: April 1999.

Computer Ref: Plant Data 514.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit. 10/12/04.

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