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The meeting will be held at Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. , Sacramento. This will be a “hybrid” meeting and will be streamed on Zoom. View the recording on our YouTube channel.
Monkeyflowers are a colorful, diverse, cheerful and scientifically important group of plants in California. Our central geographical area between northern and southern California is the center of diversity of this amazing group with over 75 taxa. 
Recent name changes have split and shifted the monkeyflowers away from the old genus name Mimulus, but more exciting is the growth of recognized species from 62 in the Jepson Manual 2 nd edition to 102 taxa currently recognized in the Jepson eFlora. In addition to the focus on these taxonomic revisions, plant geneticists and evolutionary biologists in dozens of academic labs across North America use “Mimulus” “species” as model organisms (akin to the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster) and publish hundreds of scientific papers per year.
This talk will cover some basics about monkeyflowers and recent developments, but will mainly be a visual survey of the monkeyflowers occurring in the Sacramento Valley Chapter boundary and the Sierra Nevada, finishing up with visits to the most rare and charismatic species spread around the state.
Steve Schoenig has been photographing, studying and describing new monkeyflowers for over 40 years in California, including describing two species new to science. He is retired from a state government career, initially leading the state’s Noxious Weed Eradication Program and later managing the CA Natural Diversity DataBase (CNDDB) and the Vegetation Mapping Program at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
He lives in Davis and is currently a member of the CNPS Statewide Board of Directors. He spends his botany time studying the plants of northern Death Valley, checking out new monkeyflower discoveries and hiking throughout the Sierra Nevada.
Photos courtesy of Steve Schoenig.
Title of Talk: California Bumble Bees and Their Use of Native Plants April 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM The meeting will be held at Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. , Sacramento. This will be a “hybrid” meeting and will be streamed on Zoom. Click here to register and attend via Zoom. Summary
Title of Talk: California Native Salvias – from Wildlands to Gardens March 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM The meeting will be held at Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. , Sacramento. This will be a “hybrid” meeting and will be streamed on Zoom. Click here to register and attend via Zoom Summary The
Title of Talk: Organizing a Community in Support of New Legislation February 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM This meeting will ONLY be streamed on Zoom. Click here to register and attend via Zoom. Summary We will discuss how to organize our community members on passing a bill and watchdogging it after. Key points will include: