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 longiflorus

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

southern bush monkeyflower
Habit Herbs, annual. Subshrubs.
Stems

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

erect, 300–1000(–2000) mm, glandular-puberulent and short-villous.
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 elliptic to lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or elliptic-oblanceolate, 25–65(–80) × 4–15(–25) mm, margins entire or serrate, revolute, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surfaces densely hairy, hairs branched, adaxial glabrescent.
Pedicels

1–3 mm in fruit.

5–16 mm in fruit.
Flowers

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

2 per node, chasmogamous.
Styles

glandular-puberulent or glandular-pubescent.

minutely glandular.
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.

light orange to pale yellow-orange, palate ridges orangish, tube-throat 34–45 mm, limb (25–)28–40 mm diam., bilabiate, lobes oblong, apex of adaxial 2 each shallowly incised.
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.

not inflated in fruit, 22–32 mm, glandular-puberulent and short glandular-villous to hirsute-villous, tube slightly dilated distally, lobes unequal, apex acute, ribs green, intercostal areas light green.
Capsules

8–12 mm.

18–28 mm.
Anthers

included or exserted, ciliate.

included, glabrous.
Stigmas

exserted, lobes equal.

included, lobes equal.
2n

= 16.

= 20.

Diplacus nanus

Diplacus longiflorus
Phenology Flowering (Apr–)May–Jul. Flowering (Mar–)Apr–Jul.
Habitat Openings in sagebrush, disturbed slopes, granite outcrops. Rocky hillsides and slopes, talus, chaparral, live oak woodlands.
Elevation (300–)1100–2300(–2900) m. ((1000–)3600–7500(–9500) ft.) (50–)100–1300(–1800) m. ((200–)300–4300(–5900) ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[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 longiflorus occurs in southwestern California and northeastern Baja California.

Plants and populations intermediate between Diplacus longiflorus and D. puniceus are found where their ranges meet in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties. The intermediate morphology and geography indicate that these are hybrids (as has been hypothesized by, for example, M. A. Streisfeld and J. R. Kohn 2005; D. M. Thompson 2005; M. C. Tulig and G. L. Nesom 2012), which have been identified as D. ×australis (McMinn ex Munz) Tulig. Streisfeld and Kohn found that in San Diego County, D. longiflorus and D. puniceus are discrete in morphology and separated in geography, with a narrow zone of hybrids and putative introgressants between.

Plants identified as Diplacus ×lompocensis McMinn (as species) occur where the geographic ranges of D. aurantiacus and D. longiflorus meet in Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County; these plants have floral features intermediate between these two species. Stable populations of the putative hybrid are found throughout this region, although at either end of its distribution, the populations may more closely resemble the nearer parent. Considering that both D. aurantiacus and D. longiflorus are morphologically consistent across broad regions, D. ×lompocensis is perhaps best interpreted as a zone of introgression.

Diplacus ×australis and D. ×lompocensis are similar to D. longiflorus as well as to each other in most features; they are easily separated only by geographic range. Diplacus longiflorus is distinct from both in its larger corolla features and, frequently, calyx indument.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 440. FNA vol. 17, p. 450.
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. 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. 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 D. arachnoideus, D. glutinosus var. pubescens, Mimulus aurantiacus var. pubescens, M. longiflorus
Name authority (Hooker & Arnott) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 29. (2012) Nuttall: Ann. Nat. Hist. 1: 139. (1838) — (as longiflora)
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