Horsemint

(Monarda punctata)

 

Color photograph: copyright Nearctica.com, Inc.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Horsemint (Monarda punctata)

Identification: Flowers yellow, heavily spotted with purple, tubular, and arched. Lower petal lobe broad, biblike with a thin, rectangular appendage at its apex. Upper petal lobe arched, narrow, containing the protruding stamens. Flowers in tight whorls in the upper leaf axils, surrounded by large gray-white leaflike bracts. Stem square. Leaves in opposite pairs, narrow and elongate, with untoothed outer margins. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Distribution: Southeastern Canada and the eastern United States, although apparently most common along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Habitat: Horsemint is found in a variety of sandy soil habitats along the coastal plain.

Flowering period: July to October.

Horsemint (Monarda punctata)

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