Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
Mint family (Lamiaceae)

Wild Bergamot is commonly used as a potherb and brewed as tea. Native Americans utilized the plant for a wide range of medical uses including digestive ailments. The plant was also used as a perfume. Cultivars of this plant are commonly found in gardens.


©2006 Patrick Alexander

Description

Erect , 1-3' tall, with 4-sided stems and strong minty odor. Numerous rose-purple tubular flowers form clustered heads atop leafy . Individual flowers open into narrow upper lip and 3- lower lip. Two and a single extend beyond upper lip. , , sharply- on short stalks. Stems and leaves fine hairy and are smooth in fours.

Field Marks

Shaggy, rose-purple flowers, minty odor, square stems.

© Al Schneider

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

a small nut. A nut being a hard, dry fruit containing only one seed that does not open at maturity.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.