Mimulus guttatus
Moisture-loving, short-lived perennial wildflower with bright yellow tubular or trumpet-shaped flowers blooming along streams, ponds, and boggy areas, typically 0.3–0.6 m tall, spreading aggressively by stolons, rhizomes, or self-seeding to form large clumps, and attracting bees and other pollinators.
Common Names
Monkey Flower, Common Monkeyflower, Seep Monkeyflower, Yellow Monkeyflower, Spotted Monkey Flower, Golden Monkey Flower, Common Large Monkey Flower
Summary
Mimulus guttatus, commonly called Yellow Monkey Flower, is a highly variable plant described as a species complex, standing 10–80 cm tall with disproportionately large tubular flowers 20–40 mm long. The perennial form can spread by stolons or rhizomes, with stems that may be erect or recumbent (rooting at leaf nodes when lying along the ground). Leaves are opposite, round to oval and coarsely toothed or lobed; flowers are bright yellow on a raceme of five or more blossoms, with a five-lobed calyx shorter than the flower, bilateral symmetry and two lips (upper lip two lobes, lower lip three) that may bear red spots; the floral opening is hairy. The plant typically grows in moist, wet habitats such as wetlands, damp borders, and stream margins.
Preferring moist to wet soils, it tolerates full sun to partial shade and thrives in damp borders, stream margins, boggy spots, or near water features; hardy in zones 3–9 and capable of spreading aggressively by seed and vegetatively. Propagation is by seed or division (and can be increased by cuttings), with landscape uses including ground cover for moist areas, ponds and streams, meadows, raingardens, and borders, while attracting pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
Lifecycle
Annual, Perennial
Height
12-24 inches
Spread
1.5-3.5 feet
Hardiness Zones
Zones 6-9
Sunlight Requirements
Full Sun to Partial Shade (i.e., sun or semi-shade)
Soil Type
Fertile, humus-rich, permanently moist soil
Soil Drainage
Moist but well-drained soil.
Soil pH
5.0-8.0, acidic to alkaline soils
Bloom Color
Yellow
Bloom Time
Summer
Foliage Color
Green
Fall Foliage Color
Green
Leaf Lifecycle
Deciduous
Growth Rate
Fast, reaches its ultimate height in about 1 year
Seasons of Interest
Spring, Summer, Fall
Propagation Methods
Seeds, Division, Cuttings, Layering
Attracts Wildlife
Attracts bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, other pollinators, and birds
Taxonomy
- Taxonomic Rank
- Species
- Author
- DC.
- Publication
- Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp. : 127 (1813)
- Synonym Of
- Erythranthe guttata