Orange bee balm plant8/16/2023 The spectacularly scarlet showy flower cluster of scarlet beebalm is a wonderful delight to hikers who commonly encounter this native wildflower in shady woods generally along stream banks and thickets. The flowers are long (up to 1½ inches) and narrow and markedly two-lipped the upper lip continues the corolla tube while the lower lip turns downward and is broader than the upper lip. Reddish broad bracts surround the flower clusters. The scarlet flowers are grouped in dense heads at the tips of the stems, sometimes with flowering heads developing from the stem axils below. The stems are 4-sided or square as are most members of the mint family. Leaves are opposite, 3 to 6 inches in length, coarsely toothed, glabrous to sparsely pubescent on the upper leaf surface and with spreading hairs on the lower leaf surface. Scarlet beebalm is a perennial herb that grows from shallow, slender, creeping rhizomes that grows 2 to 3½ feet tall. The species name didyma translates from the Latin meaning "in pairs" or "twins" referring to the stamens occurring in pairs. The genus name Monarda is in recognition of Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish physician, who authored an early herbal that introduced Europe to many of the plants from North America. ![]() The common name bergamont is derived from its fragrance that is similar to the fragrance of the bergamont orange. The common name Oswego tea refers to the Oswego native Americans living near the present day city of Oswego in upstate New York who taught early white settlers how to make a herbal tea from the plants leaves. The common name beebalm refers to the use of a resin derived from the plant that may be used for healing and soothing in particularly of bee stings. It is also known by the common names bergamot, Oswego tea, and crimson beebalm. Scarlet beebalm is aromatic herb a member of the mint family. ![]() Photo by Eugene Wofford, Univesity of Tennessee Herbarium. Photo by Jerry Drown, Univesity of Tennessee Herbarium. ![]() States are colored green where the species may be found.
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