Bolander's monkeyflower is a beautiful, densely glandular-pubescent, erect annual that can grow up to 3' tall.  The stems are either simple or 1-several-branched.  Munz's California Flora says that this plant has a strong tobaccolike odor, but I don't remember this being the case or whether I even smelled it.  The lowest leaves are generally glabrous while the upper ones are very hairy.  They are oblong to obovate, acute-tipped, and 3/4" to 2-1/4" in length.  The flowers are on short pedicels with calyces that are densely-hairy and wide-ribbed with white intervening spaces.  The lobes are unequal with acute to acuminate tips.  The corolla is bilabiate, pink to red-
purple or magenta with a fine pubescence on the outside, and a throat floor that is white with purple spots.  Bolander's monkeyflower is a sometimes resident of dry open places to 6500' or so, especially on burns or in disturbed locations in chaparral, foothill woodland and yellow pine forest, blooming from May to July.  It is primarily a species of areas to the north of us, but may be found in the Coast Ranges from Santa Barbara Co. north, the Tehachapi Mts and the Western Transverse Ranges.  Its range must be expanding however because these pictures were taken in a burn area north of Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mts.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Mimulus 2) bolanderi.
Pronunciation: MIM-yoo-lus bo-LAN-der-eye.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.