Lamiaceae: Monarda fistulosa

Monarda fistulosa is an aromatic, rhizomatous perennial herb with simple to branched, square stems, 30-120 cm tall, the upper portions hairy. The simple, opposite leaves are petiolate (10-25 mm long). The blades are lanceolate to ovate, 2-5 cm long and 4-20 mm wide, with small glands, a pointed tip, and toothed to subentire margins. The inflorescence is a terminal cluster of flowers on the main stem and branch ends, 1-5 cm wide, excluding the corollas, and subtended by green to whitish bracts, 1-2.5 cm long. The calyx forms a hairy tube, 5.5-11 mm long with teeth up to 1.5 mm long. The pale to dark lavender (rarely white) bilabiate corolla is 2-3.5 cm long, the outer surface hairy, the tube at the base slender, 15-25 mm long, the upper lip erect and shorter than the tube, and the lower lip is spreading, 3-lobed. The stamens are exerted from the upper lip. The fruit are 4 brown to black nutlets, 1.5-2 mm long. Beebalm blooms from June into September on prairie hillsides, along roads and open woodlands in most of South Dakota.