Lopseed Family

Phrymaceae (fri-MA-see-ee)

Iconic Features

• Herbaceous plants or small shrubs
• Leaves opposite and simple
• Flowers tubular, generally two-lipped

Description (Jepson)

• Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
  • 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
  • Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
  • Flower parts in fours and fives
  • Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
  • Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
  • Taproot system
• Annual herbs and perennial shrubs
• Leaves
  • Simple (not divided into leaflets), generally entire (with smooth margins) or toothed
  • Opposite (2 leaves at each junction with stem)
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) usually a raceme (unbranched stem with stalked flowers opening from the bottom up) or 1-2 in the leaf axils (junction with stem)
  • Bisexual and usually bilaterally-symmetrical flowers
    • Long, usually ribbed floral tube
    • 5 fused petals, in distinctly-shaped upper and lower sets
    • 2-part stigma (pollen-receiving part of the pistil/female structure)
      • Stigma closes when touched to prevent self-pollination
    • 4 stamens (male flower parts)
  • Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
• Fruit generally a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity) with many small seeds

Notes

• Approximately 200 species worldwide, most in North America and Australia, including:
  • Lopseed (Phryma leptostachya) – originally the only species in the family
  • Monkeyflowers – species formerly belonging to the single genus Mimulus, which is now divided into 6 genera based on DNA work
  • Some aquatic species
• Many monkeyflowers have been used as model organisms for biological studies (Joint 2025; Kitching 2025)
  • A model organism is a non-human species studied extensively to understand broad biological principles
    • A well-known example is the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster
  • Monkeyflowers are useful for studying evolutionary biology, genetics, and ecology, particularly plant-pollinator interactions
    • Numerous adaptations to different environmental conditions
    • Relatively small genome size
    • Short generation time (average time to reproductive maturity of offspring) of 6-12 weeks
• Scientific name from the included genus Phryma, apparently from the Greek phyrama, “a resin” or “kneaded substance”
• Represented by 4 species at Edgewood

Specific References

Joint Genome Institute (JGI). 2025. Mimulus. Genome Portal.

Kitching, A. 2025. Monkeyflower. Wild Flower Web.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family