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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa L.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Mint Labiatae
Flowering: June-September
Field Marks: This species has single heads of flowers on each stem and very short teeth on the sepals up to 1/16 inch long.
Habitat: A wide variety of habitats, including wet meadows, damp prairies, pastures, roadside ditches, along streams, around ponds, and in damp thickets.
Habit: Erect perennial, with slender, creeping rhizomes.
Stems: Upright, branched or unbranched, up to 4 feet tall, short-hairy on the upper part of the stem, usually smooth on the lower part.
Leaves: Opposite, simple, lanceolate to ovate, up to 4 inches long, up to 2 inches wide, pointed at the tip, truncate or tapering to the base, coarsely toothed, usually short-hairy, aromatic, dotted; leaf stalks up to 1 inch long.
Flowers: Numerous in single heads at the tips of the branches, each head up to 1 1/2 inches across, each flower subtended by a green to pinkish bract that often curves backward; flowers up to 1 1/2 inches long.
Sepals: 5, green, united below into a tube up to 1/2 inch long, the 5 teeth spine-like, up to 1/16 inch long.
Petals: 5, lavender to purple, united below into a tube, with 3 lobes on one side and 2 on the other, short-hairy on the outer surface.
Stamens: 2, protruding beyond the petals.
Pistils: Ovary superior, 4-parted.
Fruits: Nutlets 4, oblong to obovoid, dark brown to black, up to 1/10 inch long.
Notes: The plants of this species in the western United States are usually referred to as var. menthifolia. The nutlets are eaten by small mammals.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/7/monafist.htm
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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 11:39:25 EDT
Menlo Park, CA [caww54]