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Monkey flowers Facts

Monkey flowers Facts
Monkey flowers are flowering plants that belong to the lopseed family. There are around 150 species of monkey flowers that can be found in North America, Australia and parts of Asia and Africa. Monkey flowers prefer wet habitats such as marshes, meadows and areas near the streams. They can grow on the sandy, rocky, wet or dry soil, exposed to direct sunlight or in the partial shade. Monkey flowers are mostly cultivated in ornamental purposes. They are also used as model organisms in the fields of evolution, genetics and ecology.
Interesting Monkey flowers Facts:
Monkey flowers grow in the form of herbaceous plants or dwarf shrubs. They have erect, smooth or hairy stem that can reach 5 inches to 4 feet in height.
Monkey flowers produce dark green, oval, rounded, palmate, kidney- or heart-shaped leaves with irregularly toothed edges. Leaves are oppositely arranged on the stem. Some species have sticky leaves.
Monkey flowers produce tubular flowers that can be orange, red, pink, rose, yellow or white colored. Flowers grow on the vertical flowering stem. Upper petal consists of two lobes, lower petal of three lobes. Flowers are often multicolored and covered with numerous blotches.
Most species of monkey flowers bloom from spring to the fall (few species bloom all year round). Flowers attract hummingbirds and bees, main pollinators of these plants.
Fruit of monkey flowers is dry capsule. Ripe fruit splits to release numerous small seed.
Monkey flowers propagate via seed and cuttings.
Some species of monkey flowers require period of dormancy during the winter for the proper development of flowers in the spring.
Monkey flowers are also known as "musk flowers" due to specific musky odor that flowers of most species produce.
Name "monkey flowers" refers to unusual-looking flowers that resemble a face of a smiling monkey.
One of the species of monkey flowers (called Mimulus lewisii) possesses glandular hairs on the leaves which are used for trapping of insects. This plant belongs to a group of partially carnivorous plants which means that it supplements its sugar-based diet (produced via process of photosynthesis) with insects.
Baltimore and Common Buckeye are species of butterflies which lay eggs on the monkey flowers. Leaves of the plant are basic source of food for the caterpillars.
Monkey flowers are used in humans diet also. All parts of the plant are edible, but they need to be thermally processed before consumption (heat destroys bitter compounds).
Monkey flowers absorb and accumulate sodium chloride (table salt) from the soil. Leaves of the plant were used as a substitute for salt in the past.
Native Americans used roots and flowers of monkey flowers in treatment of scrapes and burns on the skin (plant contains compounds that kill bacteria and prevent infections).
Monkey flowers grow as annual (lifespan: one year) or perennial (lifespan: more than 2 years) plants, depending on the species.


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