Creeping Monkey-flower

Scientific Name:	Mimulus repens	Creeping Monkey-flower - plant
Other Common Name:	Maori Musk
Status:	Native to most of Australia. Also in New Zealand.
Plant Description:	Small annual or perennial, non-hairy herb usually growing along the ground from rooting nodes and forming mats. The leaves are generally crowded and small 2-6 mm long, ovate with an acute or obtuse apex and a rounded base on very short stalks. Flowers arise singly from the leaf axils on short stalks. Flowers are blue, purple or pink with a white or yellow tube 5-10 mm long and a raised yellow palate on the lower lip of the corolla. Flowers mainly in spring and autumn. Fruit is a 5 mm long capsule.
Habitat:	Generally occurs on clay soils on flats and drying lakes, sometimes in brackish situations.
Comments:	Similar to the hairy-stemmed Small Monkey-flower (Mimulus prostratus) from northern Victoria. Creeping monkey-flower has been suspected of causing sheep deaths when young plants were eaten after rain.

Creeping Monkey-flower - plant	Creeping Monkey-flower - trailing stems and leaves Photo: A J Brown	Creeping Monkey-flower - flower Photo: A J Brown
Creeping Monkey-flower - leaves and flowers Photo: A J Brown