Monarda punctata (Spotted beebalm)

Spotted beebalm, or horsemint, is a mint family member. It has a peppery / citrusy scent and can be used to make a minty herbal tea considered good for digestion. This plant grows naturally on hillsides and in prairies, inhabiting dry to average, well draining soils and full to part sun forest openings.

 

Horsemint's pink colored bracts are often mistaken for flowers, but are actually modified leaves to help attract insects to the creamy-yellow dotted blooms. Spotted beebalm is truly a balm for many solitary and long tongued bumble bees, but also moths such as the hummingbird moth, and hummingbirds also visit the tubular flowers.

 

This species is highly attractive to solitary wasps, which may look intimidating, but are harmless and actually help to consume common garden pests like aphids, beetles, and grasshoppers. Monarda species support rare and uncommon pollen specialist bees, which can only feed on a select few flowers to survive. Many monarda species are susceptible to powdery mildew, but horsemint contains thymol, a natural fungicide, so it tends to be resistant compared to others of its kind, so it can be used in rain gardens.

 

Horsemint is considered a biennial or short-lived perennial, meaning it typically lives for two to three years, but flowers quicker and longer than most perennials, seeds itself well and is easy to propagate from cuttings for a continuous population. If the stems touch moist ground, they may root into the spot and form a clone.

 

Monarda have hollow stems which are used by solitary bees for overwintering their young, so consider leaving the stems up late in the season after flowering is done. Birds such as goldfinches will also pick the small sand-sized seeds from the flowerheads in fall and winter.

 

Companion plants include grasses such as little bluestem, purple lovegrass, broomsedge, and splitbeard bluestem. Flowering plants such as Pineywoods goldenrod, Gray goldenrod, Rudbeckia hirta, Largeflower aster, Eastern pricklypear, and the Penstemon genus compliment the dry site conditions this plant prefers.