PlantFiles: Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa

This plant grows in the wild on the northern plains. I've seen them in fields outside my home city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (zone 3).

Very nice, reliable and colorful bloomer. Does very well in my heavy clay soil. I trim back the off-shoots each year to keep the plant from expanding. I've had it for four years without experiencing mildew on it yet. Attracts a wide variety of bees, which I enjoy watching among its flowers.

Here is another thing to note - the flower heads are often smaller compare to the hybrids
They loves dry prairie location, also seem to like woodland edges. In Minnesota, one of the most common wild beebalm seen.

This just keeps coming back every year in my herb garden and it is lovely. It does spring a lot of babies but I just pull them and put them elsewhere or give them away.

I like this plant even though it is prone to powdery mildew. When it gets it, I cut it back and it regrows nicely. If transplanting, it is best to do in spring, as it is not as likely to survive if done in fall. Other names include Horsemint, Mountain Bee Balm, and Wild Bee Balm.

The nectar of the flowers attracts long-tongued bees, bee flies, butterflies, skippers, and hummingbird moths. Among the long-tongued bees, are such visitors as bumblebees, Miner bees, Epeoline Cuckoo bees, and large Leaf-Cutting bees. A small black bee (Doufouria monardae) specializes in the pollination of Monarda flowers. Sometimes Halictid bees collect pollen, while some wasps steal nectar by perforating the nectar tube. The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird also visits the flowers. The caterpillars of the moths Sphinx cremitus (Hermit Sphinx) and Agriopedes teratophora (Gray Marvel) feed on the foliage. A seed bug (Ortholomus scolopax) is sometimes found in the flowerheads. Mammalian herbivores usually avoid this plant as a food source, probably because of the oregano-mint flavor of the leaves and their capacity to cause indigestion; they may contain chemicals that disrupt populations of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract.

For a member of the mint family, the flowers are large and beautiful. Wild Bergamot can be distinguished from other Monarda spp. by the color of the flowers – they are solid pink or lavender. Other species have flowers with red or pale yellow coloration, or they have dark dots on the lower lobes.

Indians made a tea from the flower clusters to treat fever and colds, a tea from the leaves was used to treat whooping cough, other coughs and sore throats. Chewed leaves were placed on wounds to stop bleeding and treat insect stings, boiled leaves were applied to pimples. It was widely used by Indians and pioneers alike as a perfume for their bodies, horses, hair and homes.

I have mine planted in a sunny border with purple coneflowers and they look great. They attract lots of butterflies and bees.

I really do love the flowers; I like their shape and color better than bee balm's flowers. But the plant is way too tall and floppy and mildewy. It's history in my garden. There's got to be something else out there with lovely lavender flowers that also is attractive as a plant.

I dug some of this up in Northern Alabama and it's just doing wonderfully. The first year I dug it up, I planted it right away, but it didn't bloom until the next year.

This is one of the wild forms of the more common hybrid bee balms. It grows to 4 feet tall with shaggy, whorled, tubular blooms of lavender-purple. This variety is more tolerent dry soils than it's showy cousins. The foliage has a wonderful minty-orange fragrance.

**Update** :o) Well... so much for it being tolerent of dry soils. After the heat of the summer this plant was covered with mildew. In fact you would have thought it was new silver-foliaged cultivar! I haven't decided if I'll give it another chance or toss it. With more moisture it would probably be a gorgeous plant.