Monkeyflower Botanical Name Changes                 

“What’s in a Name?"
"A Monkeyflower, by any other name, would have just as sweet a smile.”

In his Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare famously had Juliet say, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” This saying comes to mind as we contemplate the renaming of plant families and genera of the monkeyflowers.

The monkeyflowers were so named because of their resemblance to smiling faces, which also is the origin of the name Mimulus, from the smiling face mask worn by the mime. The monkeyflowers have since been divided into three related genera, the greatly reduced Mimulus genus, and then Diplacus and Erythranthe. These division are based primarily on genetic analysis and evolutionary theory (phylogeny) rather than morphology (form and gesture).

The genus name Erythranthe derives from the Greek ἐρυθρός ("erythros"), red, with ἄνθος ("anthos"), flower, as many of the flowers in the genus are brightly colored, but certain not all red. “Erubescens” seems very appropriate to Erythranthe erubescens (the FES Pink Monkeyflower), as it is Latin for “blushing,” hence the English name “Blushing Monkeyflower” for its light pink color.

There is a closely related species Erythranthe lewisii, which has deeper magenta flowers, and is found through Western North America, from the Rockies west and from far northern California north into western Canada. By comparison Erythranthe erubescens is found primarily in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, and nearby Nevada. For many years both species were considered as Mimulus lewisii, named for the explorer Meriwether Lewis, of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. The two species were separated and assigned to the expanded Erythranthe genus.

The former Mimulus genus was previously considered part of the Scrophulariaceae (Figwort) family, which also included the penstemons, snapdragons, and other plants with bilateral and often horizontal and tubular flowers. In the first decades of the 21^st century, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), reassigned many genera from the Scrophulariaceae, based on molecular phylogenetics. The monkeyflower genera, Erythranthe, Diplacus and Mimulus, were all reassigned to the expanded Phrymaceae (Lopseed) Family.

Traditional botanical taxonomy generally followed morphology which, rightly understood, is an outer expression of the life forces that form the plant and shape its healing properties. This understanding is related to Paracelsus’ understanding of the Doctrine of Signatures, and Johann Goethe’s depiction of the “gesture” of a plant. It is the basis for the FES approach to The Twelve Windows of Plant Perception.

Contemporary botanical taxonomy, under the leadership of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), attempts to rearrange taxonomy based on the hypothesis that a study of genetic material (DNA) can reveal the historical evolutionary relationships of plants, and that is the sole determination of their characteristics and botanical identity. This reductionist and strictly materialistic view of Darwinian evolution is now considered settled science. It is often used an excuse to make arbitrary rearrangements and renaming of well-known species and genera, based on “discoveries” which are more accurately called “hypotheses” and which could change again in a few years. This has engendered some push back for the disruption caused by all the name changes. However, the deeper issue is the loss of any connection to direct plant observation and the deeper insight into how the plant’s form and growth pattern is an expression of archetypal energies that are available for healing.

Thus, whether we call a plant Mimulus or Erythranthe, it is still a smiling monkeyflower, helping us to overcome fear and flow into life. I do welcome the additional name of erubescens, for the “blushing monkeyflower,” as it seems that for once some botanist looked up from his microscope and saw something real about the plant.