Species: Mimulus guttatus Family: Phrymaceae, Lamiales Description: important ecological model species, advanced dicot Resources: genome sequenced, over 14,500 ESTs

Information:

References: van Kleunen, M. 2007 ; Hare, J.D. and Borchardt, D.B. 2002 ; Bradshaw, H.D. and Schemske, D.W. 2003 ;
           Bradshaw, H.D. et al. 1995 ; Schemske, D.W. and Bradshaw, H.D. 1999 ;
           Beardsley, P.M. et al. 2003 ; Cooley, A.M. and Willis, J.H. 2009 ;
           Philipps, W.R. et al. 1996 ; Nitsche, H. 1972 ; Goodwin, T.W. and Thomas, D.M. 1964 ;
           Ferro, A.M. et al. 1972 ; Bloom, M. and Vickery, R.K. 1973 ; Lowry, D.B. et al. 2009 ;
           Lowry, D.B. et al. 2008 ; Macnair, M.R. 1989 ; Macnair, M.R. 1981 ; Strange, J. and Macnair, M.R. 1991 ;
           Harper, F.A. et al. 1997 ; Wu C.A. et al. 2008 ; Angert, A.L. et al. 2008 ;
           Ramsey, J. et al. 2003 ; Olmstead, R.G. et al. 2001 ; Beardsley, P.M. and Olmstead, R.G. 2002 ;
           Beardsley, P.M. and Barker, W.R. 2005 ; Douglas, D.A. 1981

Links: Wikipedia
MIMULUS project home

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	Mimulus guttatus is a small herb native to North America. It produces fertile seeds, yet rhizomes are just as essential for its proliferation, especially under hardy conditions
	Conserved chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences did not support the usual botanical classification of Mimulus as a member of Scrophulariaceae family. Instead, this highly divergent genus is now associated with Phrymaceae family
	Whereas some Mimulus species thrive across the continent, common monkey-flower is mostly found in the Western part of North America
	Mimulus spec. have been used as model plants for a long time. More than 1000 scientific publications resulted from studies on this species, dedicated to evolution, propagation, morphology and ecology of the monkey-flowers
	One of the amazing discoveries revealed the pollination modus (insect or bird as main pollinator) in M. cardinalis complex largely depended only on very few floral traits.This implies a rapid shift may have occurred, iniciated by as little as one major mutation
	Monkey-flowers are known to accumulate salt and adapt to its high concentrations in coast region. Besides, copper-tolerant varieties growing in the vicinity of copper mines have been described. The availability of closely related, yet distinct species gave rise to studies on heavy metal and salt adaptation in plants
	So far unnoticed by evidence-based medicine, common monkey-flower is one of the 38 main remedies of Bach flower remedies
	The phytochemistry of Mimulus rhizomes has not been studied so far. The petal colors depend on the accumulation of anthocyanins, carotinoids, and xanthins. Quite uncommon in the plant kingdom is the occurrence of geranylated flavonoids of the leaf surface resin

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Last updated: 22 July 2009