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shield-bract monkeyflower

lop-seed family, monkeyflower family

Habit Annuals, slender-taprooted or fibrous-rooted, rarely with runners from basal nodes. Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, annual or perennial, aquatic or terrestrial, sometimes fleshy, autotrophic.
Stems

erect, simple or branched, terete, sometimes 4-angled distally, (5–)30–60(–80) cm, glabrous, glaucous.

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

Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiole: basal and proximal cauline as long as or much longer than blade, slender, sometimes pubescent or villous, distals absent;

blade palmately 3–5-veined, (proximal) ovate to ovate-elliptic or orbicular-ovate, sometimes subcordate, 10–50 mm, midcauline to distal orbicular, 5–45 mm wide, distinctly connate-perfoliate, disclike distally, base rounded to subcordate, margins: proximals denticulate to dentate or coarsely, irregularly toothed, sometimes lobed at base, distals nearly entire or toothed, teeth scattered, small, apex rounded, surfaces glabrous, glaucous.

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).

Flowers

herkogamous, 1–16, from distal nodes, sometimes from nearly all, 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

minutely hirtellous-puberulent.

Corollas

yellow, sometimes with a median splotch, abaxial limb densely dark yellow, others much lighter, throat floor and tube red-dotted, bilaterally symmetric, bilabiate;

tube-throat funnelform, 12–23 mm, exserted 4–8 mm beyond calyx margin;

limb expanded 14–36 mm.

Fruiting pedicels

10–50 mm, glabrous, glaucous.

Fruiting calyces

broadly campanulate, inflated, sagittally compressed, 7–16 mm, glabrous, glaucous, throat closing.

Fruits

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

Capsules

included, 5–11 mm.

Seeds

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

embryo straight, endosperm sparse.

Anthers

included, glabrous.

2n

= 28.

Erythranthe glaucescens

Phrymaceae

Phenology Flowering Mar–May(–Jun).
Habitat Seepage areas, wet rocks, moist cliffs, pool edges, gravelly stream banks, serpentine outcrops, roadsides and roadcuts, low pastures, riparian woodlands, blue oak woodlands, chaparral, grasslands.
Elevation 80–900(–1100) m. (300–3000(–3600) ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[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

Plants from one locality in Butte County are unusual in producing filiform, small-leaved runners from basal cauline nodes. Erythranthe glaucescens is known only from Butte and Tehama counties.

(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. 417. FNA vol. 17, p. 365. Authors: Richard K. Rabeler, Craig C. Freeman, Wayne J. Elisens.
Parent taxa 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. floribunda, E. gemmipara, E. geniculata, E. geyeri, 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
Subordinate taxa
Diplacus, Erythranthe, Glossostigma, Mimetanthe, Mimulus, Phryma
Synonyms Mimulus glaucescens, M. guttatus var. glaucescens
Name authority (Greene) G. L. Nesom: Phytoneuron 2012-39: 43. (2012) Schauer
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