Flora of North America species comparison

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Diplacus mephiticus

Phrymaceae

foul odor monkeyflower, skunky monkeyflower

lop-seed family, monkeyflower family
Habit Herbs, annual. Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, annual or perennial, aquatic or terrestrial, sometimes fleshy, autotrophic.
Stems

erect, (20–)30–150(–180) mm, glandular-pubescent and viscid-villous.

erect or ascending to prostrate, 4-angled, sometimes winged.
Leaves

usually cauline, relatively even-sized;

petiole absent;

blade ovate to oblong or narrowly elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, narrowly oblong, or linear, 10–25 × 1–5 mm, margins entire, plane, not ciliate, apex rounded to obtuse or acute, surfaces usually glandular-pubescent and (at least along veins) viscid-villous.

deciduous or persistent, basal and cauline or all cauline, rarely subrosulate or rosulate (Erythranthe), opposite, or alternate distally, simple;

stipules absent;

petiole present or absent;

blade fleshy, semi-fleshy, or not, not leathery, margins entire or toothed.
Inflorescences

terminal and axillary racemes or flowers solitary (Glossostigma, some Erythranthe, some annual plants);

flowers erect to nodding or strongly reflexed and appressed to inflorescence axis (Phryma).
Pedicels

1–3 mm in fruit.

Flowers

2 per node, or 1 or 2 per node on 1 plant, chasmogamous.

bisexual, perianth and androecium hypogynous;

sepals (3 or)4 or 5, proximally connate, calyx radially or bilaterally symmetric;

petals 3–5, proximally connate, corolla bilaterally symmetric, rarely nearly radially in reduced forms, strongly to weakly bilabiate, rarely nearly regular, salverform to tubular-funnelform, funnelform, campanulate, or compressed;

stamens (2–)4, adnate to corolla, didynamous [both pairs of equal length in autogamous forms], staminode 0;

pistil 1, 2-carpellate, ovary superior, (1 or)2-locular, placentation axile, basal (Phryma), or parietal (Diplacus, Mimetanthe);

ovules anatropous or orthotropous (Phryma), unitegmic, tenuinucellate;

style 1;

stigma 1, 2-lobed.
Styles

glabrous or sparsely glandular-puberulent.

Corollas

of 2 color forms: (a) dark magenta, purplish, or reddish with palate ridges or whole throat floor yellow, red- or purple-dotted, lateral lobes yellowish inside and (b) yellow with red or purple spots on floor, tube-throat 8–12(–15) mm, tube 1.3–1.9 mm diam. at filament insertion, limb 5–12(–15) mm diam., bilabiate.

Calyces

symmetrically attached to pedicels, slightly inflated in fruit, (3–)4–7(–9) mm, glandular-pubescent and viscid-villous (at least along veins), lobes subequal, apex acute to acuminate, ribs dark green to purplish, intercostal areas whitish.

Fruits

capsules, dehiscence loculicidal [septicidal or irregular], or achenes [berry].
Capsules

5–8 mm.

Seeds

1–2000, yellowish brown or brown, narrowly ellipsoid, slightly flattened bilaterally;

embryo straight, endosperm sparse.
Anthers

exserted, short-hirsute.

Stigmas

exserted or at opening of corolla tube-throat, lobes subequal to unequal, abaxial to 2 times adaxial.

Diplacus mephiticus

Phrymaceae
Phenology Flowering (May–)Jun–Aug(–Sep).
Habitat Openings in sagebrush, disturbed slopes, granite outcrops, serpentine substrates, gravelly and sandy soils, sandy moraines, pumice flats, gravelly washes, meadows, shadscale and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine woodlands.
Elevation 1300–3700 m. (4300–12100 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; NV
[WildflowerSearch map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; w South America (primarily Andean); s Asia (India); se Asia; e Africa; Indian Ocean Islands (Madagascar); Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia [Introduced in Europe, s Africa]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Diplacus mephiticus occurs in eastern California and west-central Nevada.

Various synonyms treated here are in agreement with D. M. Thompson (2005). Mimulus coccineus (mostly from Eldorado to Tulare counties, California, and, apparently, including Eunanus angustifolius Greene from Mt. Rose, Nevada) includes relatively small, tufted plants at high elevations with relatively small calyces and relatively small, dark red-purple, strongly bilabiate corollas with prominently exserted stamens. Mimulus densus (mostly in Nevada and in Lassen, Nevada, and Plumas counties, California) includes taller plants at lower elevations with a strong tendency to produce populations with all individuals with larger, yellow, nearly regular corollas with more nearly included stamens. Typical Diplacus mephiticus has moderate-sized plants at medium elevations with magenta, bilabiate corollas.

The specific epithet mephiticus alludes to the musky odor of the plants; this has also been noted in plants of Mimulus coccineus and M. densus. Diplacus nanus, in which D. M. Thompson (2005) included D. mephiticus as a variety, apparently does not produce a mephitic odor. Diplacus cusickii also produces a mephitic odor (W. L. Ezell 1971).

The later homonym Mimulus angustifolius (Greene) A. L. Grant 1925, not Hochstetter ex Richard 1850, based on Eunanus angustifolius, pertains here.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 13, species ca. 200 (6 genera, 139 species in the flora).

Over one half of the species in Phrymaceae are members of Diplacus and Erythranthe and together include over 160 species; all other genera each have seven or fewer species.

Until recently, Phrymaceae consisted only of Phryma leptostachya, a taxonomically isolated species of eastern North America and eastern Asia. Molecular studies have established a relationship not with the Verbenaceae, as was earlier postulated (see H. L. Whipple 1972; R. Venkata Ramana et al. 2000), but rather with Mimulus and other genera, suggesting that Phrymaceae should be enlarged. The sequence of genera in Phrymaceae here follows the phylogeny proposed by P. M. Beardsley and R. G. Olmstead (2002).

One of the major lineages of Phrymaceae is primarily a Southern Hemisphere group ranging from Australia and New Zealand to southeastern and south Asia (India), Madagascar, and South Africa. Mimulus in the narrow sense, including the two endemic North American species, is part of this group, which includes 24 species in seven genera. The largest major lineage includes 158 species in five genera from North America, South America, and southeast Asia. This lineage includes two genera from Mexico and Central America: Hemichaena Bentham, which is sister to the North American Diplacus and Mimetanthe, and Leucocarpus D. Don, which is sister to the American and Asian Erythranthe.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Plants aquatic or semi-aquatic, mat-forming.
→ 2
2. Stems functionally stolons, leaves on stolons; sepals 3; leaf blades fleshy.
Glossostigma
2. Stems prostrate to decumbent or erect; sepals 5, sometimes 3 in reduced forms; leaf blades sometimes thickened or semi-fleshy.
Erythranthe
1. Plants terrestrial or, if semi-aquatic, not mat-forming.
→ 3
3. Flowers strongly reflexed and appressed to inflorescence axes in fruit; fruits achenes; bracteoles present.
Phryma
3. Flowers lateral or erect to nodding, not strongly reflexed and appressed in fruit; fruits capsules; bracteoles absent.
→ 4
4. Fruit apices rounded to truncate; placentation axile.
→ 5
5. Leaf venation brochidodromous; stamens adnate to middle of corolla.
Mimulus
5. Leaf venation acrodromous (veins usually basal only, sometimes basal and suprabasal); stamens adnate proximal to middle of corolla.
Erythranthe
4. Fruit apices attenuate; placentation parietal.
→ 6
6. Pedicels ± equal to or slightly longer than calyces; calyx lobe midveins low-rounded, not wing-angled; fruit walls densely pustulate-glandular.
Mimetanthe
6. Pedicels nearly absent or shorter than calyces, rarely ± equal to or slightly longer than calyces; calyx lobe midveins angled or wing-angled; fruit walls smooth, eglandular.
Diplacus
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 441. FNA vol. 17, p. 365. Authors: Richard K. Rabeler, Craig C. Freeman, Wayne J. Elisens.
Parent taxa Phrymaceae > Diplacus
Sibling taxa
D. angustatus, D. aridus, D. aurantiacus, D. bicolor, D. bigelovii, D. bolanderi, D. brandegeei, D. brevipes, D. calycinus, D. cascadensis, D. clevelandii, D. clivicola, D. compactus, D. congdonii, D. constrictus, D. cusickii, D. cusickioides, D. deschutesensis, D. douglasii, D. fremontii, D. grandiflorus, D. graniticola, D. jepsonii, D. johnstonii, D. kelloggii, D. layneae, D. leptaleus, D. linearis, D. longiflorus, D. mohavensis, D. nanus, D. ovatus, D. parryi, D. parviflorus, D. pictus, D. pulchellus, D. puniceus, D. pygmaeus, D. rattanii, D. rupicola, D. rutilus, D. thompsonii, D. torreyi, D. traskiae, D. tricolor, D. vandenbergensis, D. viscidus
Subordinate taxa
Diplacus, Erythranthe, Glossostigma, Mimetanthe, Mimulus, Phryma
Synonyms Mimulus mephiticus, M. coccineus, M. coccineus var. wolfii, M. densus, M. nanus var. mephiticus, M. reifschneiderae, M. stamineus, M. washoensis, M. wolfii
Name authority (Greene) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 29. (2012) Schauer
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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