Biorepository Data Portal

Wiggins 1964, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Native annual herb; stems simple or loosely branched, with elongated internodes, 1-22 cm tall; glandular-hairy throughout, and often reddish. Leaves: Opposite, sessile (and often connate at the base), lanceolate to linear, 3-20 mm long, entire or nearly so. Flowers: Solitary from the leaf axils on stalks 7-20 mm long; calyx tubular, reddish-ribbed, 4-9 mm long, with ciliate teeth; corolla weakly two-lipped with the lips hardly spreading, 6-9 mm long, yellow with maroon dots, or often pinkish to violet. Fruits: Capsule 4-6.5 mm hlong, included in the persistent calyx. Ecology: Found in dry sites in shadscale, rabbitbrush, Joshua tree, catclaw, blackbrush, sagebrush, live oak, ephedra, pinon-juniper, and ponderosa pine commununties; 2,500-9,000 ft (762-2743 m); flowers February-April. Distribution: CA, NV, UT, AZ, WY, CO, NM, TX; south to n MEX. Notes: Usually a very tiny plant with a reddish tint and glandular-hairy all over with sessile, usually entire, opposite leaves and yellow to pink bi-labiate flowers. Ethnobotany: Leaves and stems were used as flavor enhancers. Juice of leaves make a soothing poultice for minor burns and skin irritations. Etymology: Mimulus means ape-flower, or a diminutive of the Latin minimus, a comic or mimic actor, because of the grinning corolla, while rube- is in reference to the color red. Synonyms: Mimulus gratioloides Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015