| Erythranthe moschata | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Phrymaceae |
| Genus: | Erythranthe |
| Species: | E. moschata |
| Binomial name | |
| Erythranthe moschata | |
Erythranthe moschata is a species of monkeyflower known by the common names muskflower, musk monkeyflower, and formerly as the common musk, eyebright and musk plant. It was formerly known as Mimulus moschatus. [1] [2] [3] [4]
It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to the Rocky Mountains, where it grows in moist meadows and stream banks. [5]
It also occurs in eastern North America where it may be native or introduced. [6] It is known from Chile and parts of Europe, including England and Finland, where it grows wild after having escaped cultivation. [7]
This is a rhizomatous perennial herb which is hairless to hairy, sometimes slimy in texture, and generally musky in scent. It is variable in appearance. The prostrate or upright stem grows up to 30 centimeters long. The oppositely arranged leaves are mostly oval in shape and may reach 6 centimeters long. The tubular flower is yellow in color, its tube just a few millimeters wide and widening at the lobed mouth. It may be up to 2.6 centimeters long.
Erythranthe moschata was widely grown and sold commercially in Victorian times for its fragrance, and is well known for the story that all cultivated and known wild specimens simultaneously lost their previous strong musk scent around the year 1913. [8] Writing in 1934 in the journal Nature, E. Hardy described a Lancashire nurseryman, Thomas Wilkinson, who in 1898 found that his plants developed a "rank, leafy smell"; five years later, after leaving the trade, he noticed that plants then on sale were scentless. [9] While it was sometimes claimed that strongly scented plants could still be found in the wild, Arthur William Hill, in a 1930 article in The Gardeners' Chronicle, presented evidence from British Columbia claiming that wild populations had also lost their scent.
A variety of suggestions were put forward for a solution to the mystery, such as that the scent of the original cultivated form had been a rare recessive feature, which later disappeared as a result of uncontrolled pollination or the introduction of other genes from the wild population. Other explanations were given based on changes in climate, that humans had lost the ability to detect the smell, that the scent had been produced by a parasite, or that the loss of scent was a myth. W.B. Gourlay (1947) suggested that the phenomenon could be explained if the highly scented cultivated form had been reproduced vegetatively from a single aberrant plant, first raised in England from the original batch of seed, and later replaced by unscented plants grown from other sources of seed. [10] David Douglas first described the species and in 1826 near Fort Vancouver collected seed from which the first examples in England were raised; it is notable that he made no reference to a strong musk scent in his field notes. [11] Moreover, there are references as early as 1917 to plants in the wild having a wide range of characteristics between scentless and strongly scented, with the latter being "very much the exception". [12] During the 1920s and 1930s, at the height of botanists' interest in the 'lost scent' phenomenon, there were several reports of strongly-scented moschatus specimens being discovered in the wild, such as in 1931 on Texada Island, British Columbia.
Erythranthe cardinalis, the scarlet monkeyflower, is a flowering perennial in the family Phrymaceae. Together with other species in Mimulus section Erythranthe, it serves as a model system for studying pollinator-based reproductive isolation. It was formerly known as Mimulus cardinalis.
Erythranthe breviflora is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name shortflower monkeyflower. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Wyoming to the Modoc Plateau and northern Sierra Nevada in California. It grows in moist areas in several types of habitat. It was formerly known as Mimulus breviflorus.
Erythranthe breweri is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name Brewer's monkeyflower. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Colorado, where it grows in moist spots in several habitat types. This is a hairy annual herb producing a thin, erect stem up to 21 centimeters tall. The herbage is reddish green in color. The paired opposite leaves are linear in shape and up to 3.5 centimeters long. The plant bears small tubular flowers, each with its base encapsulated in a lightly hairy calyx of sepals with tiny equal lobes at its mouth. The five-lobed flower corolla is just a few millimeters long and light purplish pink in color, often with darker spots in the throat. It was formerly known as Mimulus breweri.
Erythranthe dentata is a species of monkeyflower known by the common names coastal monkeyflower and toothleaf monkeyflower. It is native to the western coast of North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it grows in moist habitat. It was formerly known as Mimulus dentatus.
Erythranthe filicaulis, known by the common name slender-stemmed monkeyflower, is a species of monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus filicaulis.
Erythranthe floribunda is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name many-flowered monkeyflower. It is native to western North America from western Canada to California and northern Mexico, to the Rocky Mountains. It grows in many types of habitat, especially moist areas. It was formerly known as Mimulus floribundus.
Erythranthe glaucescens is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name shieldbract monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus glaucescens.
Erythranthe gracilipes is an uncommon species of monkeyflower known by the common name slenderstalk monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus gracilipes.
Diplacus mephiticus is a species of monkeyflower known by the common names skunky monkeyflower and foul odor monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus mephiticus.
Diplacus nanus is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name dwarf purple monkeyflower. It is native to California and the Northwestern United States to Montana. It grows in moist habitat, often in bare or disturbed soils. It was formerly known as Mimulus nanus.
Erythranthe palmeri is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name Palmer's monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus palmeri.
Erythranthe parishii is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name Parish's monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus parishii.
Mimetanthe is a genus of flowering plants in the family Phrymaceae. It has only one species, Mimetanthe pilosa, synonym Mimulus pilosus, known by the common names false monkeyflower and downy mimetanthe. It is native to the western United States and Baja California, where it grows in moist and disturbed habitat types. This plant is different enough from other monkeyflowers that it is treated in its own monotypic genus, Mimetanthe, or it may be retained in Mimulus.
Erythranthe pulsiferae is a species of monkeyflower known by the common names candelabrum monkeyflower and Pulsifer's monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus pulsiferae. It is native to the western United States from Washington to northern California, where it grows in wet habitat such as streambanks. It is an annual herb growing 2 to 21 centimeters tall. The leaves occur in a basal rosette and oppositely along the stem, each on a short petiole and with an oval blade. The tubular base of the flower is encapsulated in a ribbed calyx of sepals with tiny pointed lobes. The flower is roughly a centimeter long and yellow in color, sometimes with red spotting or pink-tinged white coloration in the mouth.
Erythranthe purpurea is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name little purple monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus purpureus.
Diplacus pygmaeus is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name Egg Lake monkeyflower.
Erythranthe rubella is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name little redstem monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus rubellus.
Erythranthe shevockii is a rare species of monkeyflower known by the common name Kelso Creek monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus shevockii.
Erythranthe tilingii is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name Tiling's monkeyflower. It was formerly known as Mimulus tilingii.
Erythranthe lutea is a species of monkeyflower also known as yellow monkeyflower, monkey musk, blotched monkey flowers, and blood-drop-emlets. It was formerly known as Mimulus luteus.