Wild Bergamot
Growth Habit
HerbaceousBiocultural Value
Wild bergamot has a plethora of uses among Native Americans. Common medicinal applications include cold and sore throat remedy, gastrointestinal aid, febrifuge, analgesic, and antihelmintic. It was also commonly used as a perfume, meat preservative and flavoring, tea, spice, and fragrant pillow stuffing.
Wildlife Value
A specialist sweat bee, Dufourea monardae, collects pollen only from wild bergamot and other plants in the genus Monarda. The flowers also attract long-tongued bees (including bumblebees, miner bees, Epeoline cuckoo bees, and large leaf-cutting bees), bee flies, skippers, hummingbirds, and hummingbird moths. Some wasps "rob" nectar by perforating the base of the floral tube. Moth caterpillars (Agriopodes teratophora and Sphinx eremitus) feed on the aromatic foliage, but mammalian herbivores avoid it.
Location
Fall Creek Gorge, Mundy Wildflower GardenCultivation
Description
Perennial reaching 4' in height, sometimes pubescent above; leaves ovate-lanceolate to broadly ovate, to 4" long, acute to acuminate, weakly serrate to nearly entire, generally pubescent, petioles over 1/4" long; flowers usually solitary, terminal, headlike verticillasters; calyx to 3/8" long, hirsute in the throat, teeth bristly; corolla to 1 1/4" long, bright lavender, pubescent outside; summer blooming.
Source of plant
Johnny's Selected Seeds, Prairie Nursery, Midwest Wildflowers
