Monkey Bush

[Elimbah]

Hi all,
We are developing an Indigenous Education website for primary school and one of the areas I am researching is weather indicators - I came across a passage that read " in North East Arnham land when the Monkey bush flowers this means that it is time to collect the Tern eggs to eat". Can someone enlighten me on what is a Monkey bush?
Cheers

[Erma John]

Bush is really a monkey

[roughbarked]

Monkey is a name that comes up quite a few times in common plant names. Mimulus is one genus.









Bush is a merkin, we are all monkeys.

[stru]

i have a book in my collection titled: "mutooroo- plant use by australian aboriginal people" it makes reference to 'Monkey Nut' which is Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia. however, this is a slender tree to about 15m, not really fitting with the 'bush' description.
i have a reference in another book to 'Monkey flower' which is Mimulus gracilis...this is a south african native though. I'm not sure whether other Mimulus are represented as natives in NE Arhnem??
can i suggest you have a look at the Northern Territory equivalent website of "PLANTNET" in NSW. It will allow you to search many different criteria and may lead you to the elusive and legendary "Monkey Bush".
Giving this some afterthought...i'm wondering how Aboriginal peoples would have a name that actually translated to "monkey" for a naturally occuring plant as monkeys don't exactly live in Australia and so therefore traditionally they would have no knowledge on which to base such a name...just a thought...perhaps the translation has been corrupted somewhere along the way.
have fun.

[roughbarked]

True, there are no indigenous monkeys.

Mimulus prostratus grows in my garden though. Is a local native.