Square-Stemmed Monkey Flower Gardens for Monkey Year Theme Gardening

Summary: North American square-stemmed monkey flower gardens in Canada and in the United States celebrate Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening.

square-stemmed monkey flowers (Mimulus ringens), a North American native perennial, along banks of Missouri River, Cascade County, west central Montana; Aug. 22, 2007: Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

North American square-stemmed monkey flower gardens add simian appearances, through their monkey face-like floral lips, that align with Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening from Feb. 8, 2016, to Jan. 27, 2017.

The native perennial bears the common names Allegheny or square-stemmed monkey flower and the scientific name Mimulus ringens (small mime, gaping) for occurrence, structure and resemblance. All but Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the United States and British Columbia in southern Canada consider square-stemmed monkey flowers native flora.

The Phrymaceae plant family member of lopseed relatives decorates bogs, coastal and inland shorelines, ditches, lakes, marshes, meadows, ponds, rivers, shorelines, springs, streams, swamps and woodlands. It endures minimally acidic, to neutral or to slightly alkaline soil pH (power of hydrogen) ranges in loamy, moist to wet, organic matter-rich, partly shaded wetlands.

Creeping, horizontal, underground stems called rhizomes and vertical taproots favor soil temperatures between minus 45 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 to minus 12.22 degrees Celsius).

Mature, 1- to 3-foot- (30.48- to 91.44-meter-) high, 0.75- to 1.0-foot- (22.86- to 30.48-centimeter-) wide square-stemmed monkey flowers grow on four-angled, hollow, smooth, square, straight stems. Their rigidly upright stems harbor no noticeable wings at any stem angles, oftentimes house yellow-green streaks in bright sunlight and dried-out soils and sometimes hustle branches. Hairless, scentless stems include bilaterally symmetrical, bisexual, hairy, scentless, short-stalked flowers at upper leaf angles with stems and hairless, oppositely arranged, sharply toothed, unscented, well-stalked leaves.

Square-stemmed monkey flower gardens jumble sessile (stalkless, unpedunculated), 2- to 4-inch- (5.08- to 10.16-centimeter-) long, 2-inch- (5.08-centimeter-) wide leaves for Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening.

June- to September-blooming flowers keep near bright green, lance- to oblong-shaped, sharp-pointed, sharp-tipped, stem-clasping foliage in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) zones 3 to 8. The blue, pink, red-purple, 1-inch (2.54-centimeter), snapdragon-like flowers lavish tubular, 0.39- to 0.63-inch (10- to 16-millimeter) calyxes and yellow, 0.79- to 1.18-inch (20- to 30-millimeter) throats. The 0.79- to 1.38-inch (20- to 35-millimeter) pedicels, contrary to those of sharpwing monkey flowers, measure more than the 0.39- to 0.63-inch (10- to 16-millimeter) calyxes. White-haired corollas need three outward-spreading, rounded, 0.08- to 0.24-inch (2- to 6-millimeter) lobes on their upper lips and two backward-spreading, same-sized lobes on their lower lips.

Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening plans obtain pollen-bearing male and seed-bearing female reproductive parts from all summer-blooming flowers in North American square-stemmed monkey flower gardens.

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) prevents Baltimore (Euphydryas phaeton) and common buckeye (Junonia coenia) caterpillars from preying upon the larval stage's preferred host plants, square-stemmed monkey flowers. It queues up in overlapping wetland habitat niches so that square-stemmed monkey flowers, described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), quit reproducing. Square-stemmed monkey flowers reproduce by dark seeds released from explosive, 0.39- to 0.52-inch (10- to 13-millimeter) capsules. They survive at altitudes up to 984.25 feet (300 meters) above sea level and sustain intense competition over space with agro-industrial, business, residential and road developments.

Candelabra tree, monkey grass, monkey puzzle tree, sharpwing monkey flower and square-stemmed monkey flower gardens take care of each other for Chinese monkey year theme gardening.

square-stemmed monkey flowers (Mimulus ringens) in C & O Canal Park, Montgomery County, central Maryland; June 25, 2012: Fritz Flohr Reynolds (fritzflohrreynolds), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

square-stemmed monkey flowers (Mimulus ringens), a North American native perennial, along banks of Missouri River, Cascade County, west central Montana; Aug. 22, 2007: Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mimulus_ringens_(5156292183).jpg

square-stemmed monkey flowers (Mimulus ringens) in C & O Canal Park, Montgomery County, central Maryland; June 25, 2012: Fritz Flohr Reynolds (fritzflohrreynolds), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/fritzflohrreynolds/7665695148/

For further information:

Linnaeus, Carl von. 1 May 1753. "Mimulus ringens." Species Plantarum, Tomus II: 634. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii (Laurentius Salvius).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358655
Available via Missouri Botanical Garden Library's Botanicus Digital Library @ http://www.botanicus.org/page/358655

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 January 2016. "Sharpwing Monkey Flower Gardens in Chinese Monkey Year Theme Gardening." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/sharpwing-monkey-flower-gardens-in.html

"Mimulus ringens." Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center > Plant Database.
Available @ http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MIRI

"Mimulus ringens." Missouri Botanical Garden > Gardens & Gardening > Our Garden > Plant Finder.
Available @ http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=z410

"Mimulus ringens L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/29200088

"Mimulus ringens L. Allegheny Monkeyflower." United States Department of Agriculture > Natural Resources Conservation Service > Plant Profile.
Available @ https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=miri

Tenaglia, Dan. "Mimulus ringens L." Missouri Plants.
Available @ http://www.missouriplants.com/Blueopp/Mimulus_ringens_page.html

Weakley, Alan S.; J. Christopher Ludwig; and John F. Townsend. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.