Spotted Bee Balm - Monarda punctata

Features: The unusually shaped flowers of this native perennial shade from beige and green to maroon and pinkish-purple. It is the host plant for the Gray Marvel moth and the Raspberry Pyrausta butterfly. It also attracts the Karner blue (not a hostplant for its caterpillars, but Wild Lupine is!) and other butterflies as well honey and bumble bees and Ruby-throated hummingbirds.

The fragrance of this very aromatic plant (the leaves smell like oregano) is repellent to mammals so may help to ward away those cute neighborhood bunnies. Preferring sandy soil, it propagates via self seeding. A cold tea of the leaves has been used to ease backache, fever and inflammation.

Light: Full to Part Sun

Soil: Medium dry to dry

Height: 1-3 feet

Blooms: July-September

See more information and photos at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and North Carolina State Extension

 Photo credit:  1 & 2 Stephanie Walquist, WCWO; 3 Illinois Wildflowers; 4 & 5 Wikimedia