Mimulus alatus Aiton

Winged Monkey Flower; Sharp Wing Monkey Flower

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Winged Monkey Flower is a native herbaceous perennial in the Lopseed family (Phrymaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Winged Monkey Flower occurs on creek banks, on the shores of ponds, in swamps, in floodplain forests, and in wet roadside ditches. It is a perennial from a short rhizome or taproot. The stems are erect, 4-angled, winged, glabrous, and green in color. The stems are from 6 inches to 3 feet in height, and are usually branched. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate to lanceolate in outline, glabrous, and with toothed margins. The petioles are usually narrowly winged. Flowers are solitary on short peduncles from the axils of the middle and upper leaves. The tubular calyx is green in color with 5 winged ridges and 5 teeth at the apex. The corolla is pale to dark blue or rarely pink in color and pubescent. It is two-lipped, with the upper lip having 2 lobes that fold backwards and the lower lip has 3 spreading lobes. The throat of the flower has 2 yellow patches surrounded by a narrow white band. The throat of the corolla has a patch of yellow that is surrounded by a narrow band of white. The fruit is a capsule. Winged Monkey Flower is pollinated by bumblebees. It is a host plant for the larvae of the Common Buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia) and the Chalcedony Midget moth (Elaphria chalcedonia). Winged Monkey Flower is occasionally available from native plant nurseries. It requires an rich, organic soil that is consistently moist or wet. It grows best in partial shade, but will tolerate full sun if it is not allowed to dry out. Plants can also be grown from seed planted in the autumn. The small seed should be sown on the surface of the soil.—A. Diamond.

**

Native

**