If you’ve never heard of Mimulus before, it’s a great time to become acquainted with this gorgeous little bloom. Mimulus, translated from Latin, means “mime” which refers to the funny clown-face the fat petals of the flower make when viewed head on. Its more well-known name, Monkey Flower, is also a reference to the flower shape and with just the smallest imagination anyone can see a silly monkey face.
The earliest documented discovery of the common monkey flower was by Captain Meriwether Lewis, on the 4th July 1806, and amazingly, can still be viewed at the Lewis & Clark Herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Having thought the sample was lost, it was thankfully rediscovered, almost a century later, at the American Philosophical Society.
