The Black Range

Spotted Monkeyflower - Mimulus guttatus
Railroad Canyon
Black Range, NM, USA
July 8, 2016

Mimulus guttatus, Spotted Monkeyflower, is fairly common along the creek above the Railroad Canyon Campground in the central Black Range of New Mexico, USA, during the summer.  Other English common names for this species are Seep Monkeyflower, Common Large Monkey-flower, Golden Monkeyflower, Stream Monkey-flower, and Common Yellow Monkeyflower.   The corolla (the term for all of the petals) is such that it practically blocks entry into the flower tube.  Bees, which pollinate this species, must rub against the pollen on the lower petal, to gain entry into the tube and access to the nectar - a very effective design for the transference of pollen.

This is a extraordinary species which grows in a extensive range of habitats and is found in both annual and perennial forms.  It has been the subject of more than 1,000 scientific papers.  

Mimulus guttatus was first described by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.  There are many scientific synonyms for this species.  Various sources have argued that the species should be split.

The Native American Ethnobotany Data Base has several listings for uses of this species.

The specimen shown below was gathered as part of the United States - Mexico International Boundary Survey.  Details are slight, except that it was “collected under the direction of Major W. H. Emory, Commissioner, chiefly in the Valley of the Rio Grande, below Doñana - by C. C. Parry, M.D., J. M. Bigelow, M.D., Mr. Charles Wright, and Mr. A. Schott.”