Wilde Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Flowers
Clusters of lavender, pink or white flowers, looking like ragged pompoms, bloom atop 2-5 ft.
Fruits
Seeds ripen 2 months after plant blooms. The seeds are small and brown
Leaves
This showy perennial, frequently cultivated, has aromatic leaves used to make mint tea. Oil from the leaves was formerly used to treat respiratory ailments. The leaves smell minty.
Habitats
Grows in dry open woods, fields, wet meadows and ditches, and at the edges of woods and marshes.
Fun Facts
Long ago, Wild Bergamot was used to treat many ailments. For one, the leaves oil was used to dry up pimples, boiled leaves were applied directly to pimples.
Amerindians used leaf tea for colic, flatulence, colds, fevers, stomach aches, nosebleeds, insomnia, & heart trouble.
****Wild bergamot attracts a number of specialist bees, bumble bees, predatory wasps, hummingbirds, and hawk moths. Look around the butterfly garden and try to locate the Wild bergamot. Do you observe any bees, wasps, moths, or hummingbirds nearby?