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many-flower monkey-flower, purple-stem monkey-flower

Colorado monkeyflower

Habit Annuals, fibrous-rooted or filiform-taprooted. Perennials, rhizomatous, colonial, rhizomes forming a mass, branching, filiform.
Stems

erect to decumbent, sometimes procumbent-trailing, straight or geniculate at nodes, simple or many-branched, 3–22(–40) cm, villous-glandular, hairs greatly variable in length and density, gland-tipped, sometimes 0.2–0.5 mm, sparsely stipitate-glandular.

erect to erect-ascending, branched, 5–20 cm, densely minutely hirtellous and eglandular or with a mixture of hirtellous and gland-tipped hairs.

Leaves

cauline, basal mostly deciduous by flowering;

petiole 1–12 mm;

blade pinnately to subpalmately veined, ovate, (3–)8–25(–35) × (1–)5–18(–26) mm, base cuneate to truncate or cordate, margins serrate to sparsely dentate, apex acute, surfaces villous-glandular, hairs greatly variable in length and density, gland-tipped, sometimes 0.2–0.5 mm, sparsely stipitate-glandular.

basal and cauline;

petiole 0 mm or proximals 1–3 mm;

blade palmately 3-veined, broadly ovate to elliptic-ovate or lanceolate, 8–25 × 5–15 mm, base cuneate to truncate, margins shallowly dentate to denticulate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces glabrous.

Flowers

plesiogamous, 1–20, from proximal to distal nodes.

herkogamous, 1–3, from distal nodes.

Styles

glabrous.

sparsely hirtellous.

Corollas

yellow, abaxial limb red-dotted, bilaterally symmetric, weakly bilabiate;

tube-throat funnelform-cylindric, (4–)5–10 mm, exserted slightly beyond calyx margin or not;

limb expanded 3–4 mm diam., lobes usually oblong, apex notched.

yellow, not red-dotted, bilaterally symmetric, bilabiate;

tube-throat tubular-funnelform, 9–11 mm, exserted 0–1(–2) mm beyond calyx margin.

Fruiting pedicels

5–20(–26) mm, villous-glandular, hairs greatly variable in length and density, gland-tipped, sometimes 0.2–0.5 mm, sparsely stipitate-glandular.

10–20 mm, densely minutely hirtellous and eglandular or with a mixture of hirtellous and gland-tipped hairs.

Fruiting calyces

greenish or purplish to red-dotted, cylindric, ± inflated, 4–7 mm, margins distinctly toothed or lobed, villous-glandular, lobes pronounced, erect.

nodding 80–100º, not purple-dotted, cylindric-campanulate, inflated, sagittally compressed, 10–13 mm, densely minutely hirtellous and eglandular or with a mixture of hirtellous and gland-tipped hairs, throat closing.

Capsules

included, 4–7 mm.

included, 5–8 mm.

Anthers

included, glabrous.

included, glabrous.

2n

= 32.

Erythranthe floribunda

Erythranthe minor

Phenology Flowering (May–)Jun–Aug(–Sep). Flowering Jul–Aug(–Sep).
Habitat Under overhangs, moist roofs of caves, wet rock crevices, cliff faces, wet cliff bases, below waterfalls, seeps, springs, humus and moist soils over rocks and slabs, moist slopes, ditches and pond edges, wet edges of creeks and rivers, drying mud on margins of wetland depressions, creek beds, wet or swampy meadows, along trails, in lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, ponderosa pine-Douglas fir, and spruce-fir woodlands. Stream and lake edges, intermittent subalpine water courses, roadside ditches, subalpine to alpine.
Elevation (100–)1800–2600(–3100) m. ((300–)5900–8500(–10200) ft.) 3000–3700 m. (9800–12100 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AR; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
CO; NM
Discussion

Some plants identified here as Erythranthe floribunda in Arizona and southwestern New Mexico are distinctive in their prominently inflated calyces, sessile to subsessile leaves with attenuate bases and palmately three- to five-veined venation, and much-elongated pedicels (20–43 mm); numerous intermediates in Arizona make it difficult to conclude that the variants represent an entity discontinuous from plants of typical morphology. The variant morphology has not been observed among Mexican populations. Further discussion of this situation was given by G. L. Nesom (2012h).

Erythranthe floribunda has been documented from 12 counties in northern Arkansas (Carroll, Cleburne, Crawford, Franklin, Izard, Johnson, Logan, Newton, Pope, Searcy, Stone, and Washington), where it occurs at 300–500 m. The unpublished name Mimulus floribundus subsp. moorei Iltis appears in various checklists in reference to the Arkansas plants, but there appears to be no basis for treating them as distinct from the rest of the species. Elsewhere in the main range (western states), scattered variants extremely reduced in size, leaves, flowers, and overall stature appear to be at the lower limits of the species rather than taxonomically distinct.

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

The corollas of Erythranthe minor are shorter than those of typical E. tilingii, and the two species are allopatric. Corollas of E. tilingii rarely may be equally as short as those of E. minor but are produced in scattered localities on plants that are depauperate in other ways. The range of E. minor is primarily in Colorado apparently extending southward into the Wheeler Peak area of Taos County, New Mexico. Attribution of its range into the La Sal Mountains of east-central Utah has been based on misidentifications of E. guttata; the distinction between E. guttata and E. minor in Colorado also needs clarification.

Mimulus luteus Linnaeus var. alpinus A. Gray (1863, the type from Colorado) is an illegitimate name for Erythranthe minor, preceded by M. luteus var. alpinus Lindley (1827).

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

Source FNA vol. 17, p. 404. FNA vol. 17, p. 409.
Parent taxa Phrymaceae > Erythranthe Phrymaceae > Erythranthe
Sibling taxa
E. acutidens, E. alsinoides, E. ampliata, E. androsacea, E. arenaria, E. arenicola, E. arvensis, E. barbata, E. bicolor, E. brachystylis, E. breviflora, E. breweri, E. caespitosa, E. calcicola, E. calciphila, E. cardinalis, E. carsonensis, E. charlestonensis, E. chinatiensis, E. cinnabarina, E. corallina, E. cordata, E. decora, E. dentata, E. diffusa, E. discolor, E. eastwoodiae, E. erubescens, E. exigua, E. filicaulis, E. filicifolia, E. gemmipara, E. geniculata, E. geyeri, E. glaucescens, E. gracilipes, E. grandis, E. grayi, E. guttata, E. hallii, E. hardhamiae, E. hymenophylla, E. inamoena, E. inconspicua, E. inflatula, E. jungermannioides, E. laciniata, E. latidens, E. lewisii, E. linearifolia, E. marmorata, E. michiganensis, E. microphylla, E. minor, E. montioides, E. moschata, E. nasuta, E. norrisii, E. nudata, E. palmeri, E. pardalis, E. parishii, E. parvula, E. patula, E. percaulis, E. primuloides, E. ptilota, E. pulsiferae, E. purpurea, E. regni, E. rhodopetra, E. rubella, E. scouleri, E. shevockii, E. sierrae, E. suksdorfii, E. taylorii, E. thermalis, E. tilingii, E. trinitiensis, E. unimaculata, E. utahensis, E. verbenacea, E. washingtonensis, E. willisii
E. acutidens, E. alsinoides, E. ampliata, E. androsacea, E. arenaria, E. arenicola, E. arvensis, E. barbata, E. bicolor, E. brachystylis, E. breviflora, E. breweri, E. caespitosa, E. calcicola, E. calciphila, E. cardinalis, E. carsonensis, E. charlestonensis, E. chinatiensis, E. cinnabarina, E. corallina, E. cordata, E. decora, E. dentata, E. diffusa, E. discolor, E. eastwoodiae, E. erubescens, E. exigua, E. filicaulis, E. filicifolia, E. floribunda, E. gemmipara, E. geniculata, E. geyeri, E. glaucescens, E. gracilipes, E. grandis, E. grayi, E. guttata, E. hallii, E. hardhamiae, E. hymenophylla, E. inamoena, E. inconspicua, E. inflatula, E. jungermannioides, E. laciniata, E. latidens, E. lewisii, E. linearifolia, E. marmorata, E. michiganensis, E. microphylla, E. montioides, E. moschata, E. nasuta, E. norrisii, E. nudata, E. palmeri, E. pardalis, E. parishii, E. parvula, E. patula, E. percaulis, E. primuloides, E. ptilota, E. pulsiferae, E. purpurea, E. regni, E. rhodopetra, E. rubella, E. scouleri, E. shevockii, E. sierrae, E. suksdorfii, E. taylorii, E. thermalis, E. tilingii, E. trinitiensis, E. unimaculata, E. utahensis, E. verbenacea, E. washingtonensis, E. willisii
Synonyms Mimulus floribundus, M. deltoideus, M. floribundus var. membranaceus, M. membranaceus, M. peduncularis, M. serotinus Mimulus minor, M. alpinus, M. langsdorffii var. alpinus, M. langsdorffii var. minor
Name authority (Lindley) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 38. (2012) (A. Nelson) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 44. (2012)
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