Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Diplacus nanus

Diplacus bicolor

dwarf monkey flower, dwarf purple monkey-flower, purple monkeyflower

harlequin monkeyflower, Whitney's monkeyflower
Habit Herbs, annual. Herbs, annual, herbage usually drying dark.
Stems

erect, 30–120 mm, minutely glandular-puberulent.

erect or ascending, 10–140(–220) mm, glandular-puberulent to glandular-pubescent.
Leaves

basal and cauline, relatively even-sized;

petiole absent;

blade narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, ovate, obovate, or elliptic-lanceolate, (1–)3–30(–50) × (0.4–)0.7–8(–20) mm, margins entire, plane, apex rounded or obtuse, surfaces minutely glandular-puberulent.

usually cauline, relatively even-sized;

petiole absent;

blade narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or linear, (4–)7–23(–34) × 1–5(–8) mm, margins entire, plane, not ciliate, apex acute, surfaces glandular-puberulent.
Pedicels

1–3 mm in fruit.

1–3(–4) mm in fruit.
Flowers

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

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

glandular-puberulent or glandular-pubescent.

glandular-puberulent.
Corollas

magenta to purplish, dark line often extending onto each abaxial lip lobe from throat, palate ridges yellow with red-purple speckling and border, throat floor villous with hairs extending onto abaxial lip, tube 1.1–1.9 mm diam. at filament insertion, tube-throat 11–15 mm, limb 8–14 mm diam., usually, rarely not, bilabiate.

(a) magenta, darkening toward mouth and within tube, often nearly obscuring dark longitudinal stripes within, throat floor or at least palate ridges yellow, or (b) yellow, usually with maroon stripes in throat extending onto lobe bases, sometimes with maroon blotches on adaxial lateral walls of throat, colored palate ridges ending in throat, tube-throat (10–)13–18(–20) mm, limb 10–19 mm diam., not bilabiate.
Calyces

symmetrically attached to pedicels, not inflated in fruit, 6–9 mm, minutely glandular-puberulent, lobes subequal, apex acute-apiculate, acuminate, or attenuate, ribs dark green or reddish, intercostal areas whitish.

symmetrically attached to pedicels, not inflated in fruit, (3–)4–8(–10) mm, glandular-puberulent, tube not strongly plicate, lobes triangular, subequal, apex acute-apiculate, ribs narrow, darkened, purplish, thin, not strongly raised, intercostal areas pale green.
Capsules

8–12 mm.

(4.5–)6–10(–13) mm.
Anthers

included or exserted, ciliate.

included, ciliate.
Stigmas

exserted, lobes equal.

included, lobes equal.
2n

= 16.

= 16.

Diplacus nanus

Diplacus bicolor
Phenology Flowering (Apr–)May–Jul. Flowering May–Sep.
Habitat Openings in sagebrush, disturbed slopes, granite outcrops. Disturbed areas, water runoff areas, granitic soils, edges of granite outcrops.
Elevation (300–)1100–2300(–2900) m. ((1000–)3600–7500(–9500) ft.) (1200–)1500–3300 m. ((3900–)4900–10800 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Diplacus nanus is broadly distributed through northern California, southern Idaho, and eastern Oregon, with stations in Ravalli County, Montana, and Park County, Wyoming, and scattered localities in Washington.

Diplacus nanus is generally recognized by its strongly bilabiate corollas with purplish (not yellow) tubes and two dark purple patches along the sides of the throats. The glandular-puberulent vestiture of D. nanus contrasts with the glandular-pubescent and viscid-villous vestiture (with hairs much longer) of D. mephiticus.

W. L. Ezell (1971) noted that in the Siskiyou Mountains of Josephine County, Oregon, and adjacent Siskiyou and Trinity counties, California, corollas of Diplacus nanus do not have clearly differentiated abaxial and adaxial lips.

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

Diplacus bicolor is endemic to Fresno, Kern, and Tulare counties in the southern Sierra Nevada. The combination D. whitneyi (A. Gray) G. L. Nesom is illegitimate, as Mimulus whitneyi A. Gray 1886, is a replacement name based on Eunanus bicolor A. Gray 1868.

Diplacus bicolor, D. bigelovii, D. constrictus, D. graniticola, D. layneae, and D. thompsonii appear to be closely related species, sometimes intergrading where sympatric. Plants of each species often produce flowers at all nodes and have dark magenta corollas with nearly regular to weakly bilabiate limbs and villous vestiture. Specimens of each species dry to a dark color.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 440. FNA vol. 17, p. 437.
Parent taxa Phrymaceae > Diplacus 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. mephiticus, D. mohavensis, 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
D. angustatus, D. aridus, D. aurantiacus, 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. mephiticus, 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
Synonyms Mimulus nanus, M. tolmiei Eunanus bicolor, M. nanus var. bicolor, M. whitneyi
Name authority (Hooker & Arnott) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 29. (2012) (A. Gray) Hrusa: Phytoneuron 2014-17: 1. (2014)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers