131. Musk-flower

Musk-Flower's (Mimulus moschatus)   common name is a reminder of a botanical mystery. Called Musk-flower, or sometimes simply Musk, it was imported to Europe from Western North America as an ornamental plant and  grown for its perfumed flowers and foliage.  So common was its cultivation in Victorian England that the scent of Musk-flower pervaded towns in the evening.  Then in the early 1900's the species suddenly became scentless- both in Europe and in North America.  Searching for scented forms has failed to find one.  The cause of this peculiar phenomenon has never been explained.
Our Musk(less)-flower is dervied from a cutting I took from a plant growing in a ditch along the Galloping Goose Trail.  We planted it in the gravel beds alongside the stream we built in the garden.  This clearly is a spot to its liking since it has spread aggresively by long underground runners and would take over the entire stream if it wasn't for the several wheelbarrow loads we take to the compost heap each summer.  Seedlings pop up around the edge of the pond often, and usually I weed them out - but not before I sniff to see if one of them has re-found the ability to produce the famous musk scent.

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