Flora of North America species comparison

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Diplacus tricolor

Diplacus rutilus

tricolor monkeyflower

Santa Susana bush monkeyflower
Habit Herbs, annual, acaulescent or caulescent. Subshrubs.
Stems

erect or ascending, 10–140(–170) mm, densely glandular-puberulent.

erect, 300–1000(–2000) mm, glandular-puberulent and short-villous.
Leaves

basal densely clustered;

petiole absent;

blade narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, (5–)8–45(–60) × (1–)3–12(–20) mm, margins entire, sometimes toothed, plane, not ciliate, apex obtuse, surfaces 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(–5) mm in fruit.

5–16 mm in fruit.
Flowers

1 per node, chasmogamous.

2 per node, chasmogamous.
Styles

usually glandular-puberulent.

minutely glandular.
Corollas

tricolored, limb and throat magenta to purple, each lobe with a discrete, dark maroon-purple blotch at base, all 3 blotches of abaxial lip round and not usually extending into throat, palate ridges yellow, flanked with white, sometimes purple-spotted, tube-throat (13–)15–50 mm, limb 7–21 mm diam., bilabiate, lobes equal.

red to orange-red, throat whitish at least on floor, palate ridges orange or white with orange crest, tube-throat 34–45 mm, limb (25–)28–40 mm diam., bilabiate, lobes oblong, apex of adaxial 2 each shallowly, asymmetrically incised.
Calyces

slightly asymmetrically attached to pedicel, not inflated in fruit, (6–)11–23 mm, densely glandular-puberulent, lobes subequal, apex obtuse, ribs often purplish proximally, 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

(2–)3–8(–10) mm, indehiscent.

18–28 mm.
Anthers

included, with apical tufts of short, eglandular hairs.

included, glabrous.
Stigmas

nearly exserted, lobes subequal.

included, lobes equal.
2n

= 18.

Diplacus tricolor

Diplacus rutilus
Phenology Flowering Mar–Jul(–Aug). Flowering Mar–Jun.
Habitat Vernally flooded depressions in grasslands, low spots and ditches in and around agricultural fields. Chaparral.
Elevation 50–1500 m. (200–4900 ft.) 400–600 m. (1300–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Diplacus tricolor occurs in northwestern and south-central Oregon and from there across a disjunction to central California as far as Kern County.

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

H. E. McMinn (1951), M. C. Tulig and G. L Nesom (2012), and Nesom (2013c) treated Diplacus rutilus at specific rank, but P. A. Munz and D. D. Keck (1973) followed the original assessment of A. L. Grant (1924) in treating it as a variety of the light orange- to pale yellow-orange-flowered D. longiflorus, while R. M. Beeks (1962) and D. M. Thompson (2005) regarded this taxon as only a variant of D. longiflorus, without formal rank. It is maintained here as a distinct, red-flowered species localized in Los Angeles County, California. Diplacus rutilus occurs in pockets in a strip from Whittier and Pomona through North Pasadena westward to near the Ventura County line (the Santa Susana area being the type locality), a distance of almost 60 miles.

Very few of these red-flowered collections can be separated in any feature except corolla color from typical Diplacus longiflorus. Red corollas have not been observed in D. longiflorus outside of Los Angeles County, and D. rutilus might be interpreted as reflecting local introgression in this area from D. puniceus, but the distinctive and tightly coherent geographical distribution of these red-flowered plants and their apparent absence elsewhere in the area where D. ×australis occurs suggest that the origin of D. rutilus is different from that of the highly variable D. ×australis.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 447. FNA vol. 17, p. 451.
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. 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. 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. 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. thompsonii, D. torreyi, D. traskiae, D. tricolor, D. vandenbergensis, D. viscidus
Synonyms Mimulus tricolor Mimulus longiflorus var. rutilus, D. longiflorus var. rutilus
Name authority (Hartweg ex Lindley) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 30. (2012) (A. L. Grant) McMinn: Madroño 11: 83. (1951)
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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