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BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Erythranthe breviflora
short-flowered monkey-flower

 
Scientific Name: Erythranthe breviflora (Piper) G.L. Nesom
Scientific Name Synonyms: Mimulus breviflorus
English Name: short-flowered monkey-flower
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vascular Plant
Species Code: ERYTBRE
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Plantae Anthophyta Dicotyledoneae Lamiales Phrymaceae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G4 (Nov 1984)
Provincial Status: S4 (Apr 2019)
BC List: Yellow
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 2 - May be at risk (2010)
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description: Short-flowered Monkeyflower is a slender, glandular annual with branched stems that are up to 10 cm high. The opposite leaves have petioles and narrowly elliptic blades that are 5-20 mm long with entire or sparingly-toothed margins. The long-stalked flowers are borne in the axils of the upper leaves. The glandular, tubular calyx has 5 short lobes. The faintly spotted, yellow, tubular corolla is 4-7 mm long, has 5 nearly equal lobes, and is slightly 2-lipped. The fruit is a round capsule.
Technical Description:
Diagnostic Characteristics: M. FLORIBUNDUS has broadly lance-shaped leaf blades, and M. SUKSDORFII has strap-shaped leaves without petioles.
Similar Species:
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence) 		Grassland/Shrub / Meadow / Facultative - occasional use
Other Unique Habitats / Vernal Pools/Seasonal Seeps / Obligate
Rock/Sparsely Vegetated Rock / Rock/Sparsely Vegetated Rock / Facultative - frequent use
Provincial Habitat Comments: There is abundant herbarium-based data on the habitat of short-flowered monkey-flower in BC. Almost every record notes that this species requires early-year moist, often seepy soil on which to grow. Detailed herbarium habitat notes include: margin of small pond; in wet, mossy depressions on open rocky knoll; moist open slope around small rock outcrop; damper sections of seasonally moist open meadows forming partings in IDF forest, with Mimulus guttatus and occasionally M. breweri; on steep southern slope with some open, dusty soil (may be moist early in the season), with Heterocodon rariflorum and Florkea proserpinacoides, and surrounded by shrubs; open seepage (dry in summer) on 15% S-facing rocky mountainside with Philadelphus lewisii, Populus tremuloides, Amelanchier alnifolia, Madia exigua, Heterocodon rariflorum, Triteleia grandiflora, Castilleja tenuis, and Trifolium aureum; on 45-50% bare, gravelly, sandy road cut, aspect 170 degrees, on aspen-lodgepole pine slope; in vernally moist sites (now dry) with Microsteris gracilis, Gayophytum humile, and Penstemon serrulatus; 30% W-facing meadow slope in moist bare dirt with Polygonum majus, Epilobium brachycarpum, Microsteris gracilis, and Filago arvensis; steep S-facing conglomerate volcanic rock outcrops with limestone pockets; bare, vernally moist soil in fine scree above Douglas-fir forest, with Mimulus guttatus and M. floribundus. It is often found with other rare plants, in particular, Mimulus breweri, as shown by herbarium data, but also with many other species (Bjork 2008) that are usually restricted to vernally wet habitats.
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Elevation (m) (min / max): Provincial: 
Known Pests:
Pollen Vector:
Pollinator:
Dispersal:
   
 
Provincial Inventory
Inventory Priority:
Ownership of occurrences (Known locations):
Inventory Need:
 
Economic Attributes
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Disjunct, more common elsewhere:
Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere:
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: KAJ
Last Updated: Nov 02, 1997
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
Last Literature Search:
   
References and Related Literature
Bjork, C. 2008. Noteworthy Vascular Plants from the Cascade Lee, British Columbia. Botanical Electronic News. #401.November 25, 2008. Available online at: http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben401.html.
Buck, J., S. Starr, C. Witham, A. Solomeshch, R. MacDonald, M. Barbour, and R. Holland. 2007. Resistance and resilience of vernal pool vegetation. pp 3-11 in: Vernal Pool Landscapes. Schlising, R.A. and D.A. Alexander (eds.). Studies from the Herbarium 14. California State University.
Douglas, G.W., D. Meidinger, and J. Penny. 2002. Rare Native Vascular Plants of British Columbia, 2nd ed. B.C. Conserv. Data Centre, Terrestrial Inf. Branch, Victoria. 358pp.
Douglas, G.W., D. Meidinger, and J. Pojar, eds. 2000. Illustrated Flora of British Columbia, Vol. 5, Dicotyledons (Salicaceae through Zygophyllaceae) and Pteridophytes. B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, and B.C. Minist. For., Victoria. 389pp.
Hitchcock, C. L., and A. Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. Univ. Wash. Press, Seattle.
NatureServe. 2010. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available http://www.natureserve.org/explorer (Accessed: March, 2010).
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1997. Species Summary: Erythranthe breviflora. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 6, 2026).