WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

You’ll probably get your feet wet looking at this dainty yellow flower that favors springs and seeps. The reddish, hollow stems of the 1–2-foot sprawling to erect plant root at the nodes and often drape over boulders in shallow water. It spreads by rhizomes and can form large clusters. Note the flowers with an irregular shape, red dots in the hairy throat, and several blooming at a time from a leaf node.

FLOWER: June–August. The 3/8–1-inch long (9–24 mm), tubular, bright yellow flower opens into an asymmetrical face with 2 broad, upper lobes and 3 lower lobes. The longer middle lobe is heavily bearded, has red spots, and distinct ridges that almost close the throat; note the calyx tube clasping the petals has ridges, is moderately hairy (or not), and the triangular tips (lobes) are unequal in length. The shorter lobes fold over the top of the fruiting capsule.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades oval to rounded, 5/8–2-inches long and wide (1.5–5.5 cm), hairless or nearly so, have 5–7 prominent veins, and margins with irregular teeth or lobes. Lower leaves have stems, upper leaves do not.

HABITAT: Wet soils, shallow water of springs, seeps, streams; pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests, alpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 4,000–11,900 feet.

RANGE: Rocky Mountain states and westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: This is the most widespread of the 12 yellow species in NM. Smooth Monkey Flower, M. glabratus (M. geyeri), in much the same range, also has red-spotted, yellow flowers but the throat is open, the calyx (tube that cups the petals) is hairless, and a single flower blooms form a leaf node. Most other yellow species have limited or 1–2-county ranges.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in western 2/3 of NM (absent in eastern plains) in low- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance.

NOTES: The two scientific names listed for the species are both accepted as valid. Some authors place the Mimulus species in the Plantain family, Plantaginaceae, while others retain the traditional placement in Scrophulariaceae.