Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual with erect to reclining stems, stems branched, 3-15 cm tall, glandular to viscid-villous.

Leaves: Opposite, petiolate, the petiole to 12 mm long, blade elliptic ovate to ovate-lanceolate, dentate, 4-19 mm long.

Flowers: Solitary and axillary on pedicel longer 5-20 mm long, with calyx 3-6 mm long, glandular, becoming longer and inflated in fruit, teeth triangular, equal, the tube cylindric, corolla 5-10 mm long, yellow, tubular, somewhat bilabiate, dotted or streaked with red in open throat, 8-15 mm long, anthers and style exserted.

Fruits: Loculicidal capsule 4-7 mm long, elliptic to ovoid.

Ecology: Found in moist to wet soils along streambanks, seeps, and springs from 3,000-9,000 ft (914-2743 m); flowers May-September.

Notes: Distinguished by the corolla being only slightly bilabiate, with entire calyx lobes and the leaves being mostly petioled. Similar to M. rubellus in being an annual, but remember that M. rubellus has pink flowers.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Mimulus means ape-flower, or a diminutive of the Latin minimus, a comic or mimic actor, because of the grinning corolla, while floribundus means many flowered.

Synonyms: Numerous, see Tropicos

Editor: SBuckley, 2010