Yellow flower ID please

[rscott74]

These two pics were taken on 5th July of a plant growing next to a puddle on a local walkway. The closer shot indicates a series of red spots on the lower lip. Can anyone tell me what it is?

[Tiggrx]

It is a species of Monkeyflower (Mimulus) - most likely Hybrid Monkeyflower (Mimulus x robertsii)

[Jez]

The second pic gives the game away the red spots on the petals refering back to the first pic seen by water i'd too suggest thats a mimulus of some descript.

[rscott74]

Thanks tiggrx & jez. I'd get nowhere without you!

[Jez]

Glad to help

[AlanS]

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

It is a species of Monkeyflower (Mimulus) - most likely Hybrid Monkeyflower (Mimulus x robertsii)

As the author of "Mimulus x robertsii" I'd be delighted to post they, hey, that is "my" plant. (Though any credit goes to oeoeoeoe Roberts, the Welsh schoolteacher who initially recognised the hybrid and whom I named it after.)

But it isn't.

This is one of its parents, Mimulus guttatus, Monkeyflower. It has very long inflorescences in which we see the fruiting calyces are strongly inflated (a good if not totally reliable indication of fertility). The upper bracts are broad and untoothed, and the whole inflorescence is densely clothed in white hairs (probably some glands too). Taken in combination, these characters define M. guttatus reasonably well, though they are not individually reliable.

M. guttatus is generally the commonest lowland Mimulus and it seems more tolerant of organic pollution along lowland rivers than the other species and hybrids. Mimulus x robertsii often resembles it very closely (lots of mis-named photographs in books and on the net) and is much the commoner along upland rivers and streams.

M. guttatus is an introduction of course, from North America, the variant we have in Britain having come from Alaska, via Russia. Established in Britain for about 175 years now.

Alan