Dwarf Horsemint (Monarda clinopodioides) is another horsemint of sandy plains in Texas and Oklahoma. The plants are usually less than a foot high. They have white corollas, and the short bracts are purplish-brown with hairy margins. This horsemint is not so widespread as the green and purple horsemint.
PURPLE HORSEMINT
Purple Horsemint. Lemon Monarda (Monarda citriodora) is lovely not only because of its dainty flowers but especially because of the floral leaves or bracts surrounding the flowers. These bracts take on a reddish-purple color and may be marked with white and green. The purple varies from rosy tints to a royal hue.
The flowers grow in whorls or rosettes at the top of the stem, new ones appearing with continued growth until there may be ten or more clusters on a stem. The corollas are narrow, tubular, and two-lipped, varying in color from lavender to white and commonly marked with small purple dots. The tubular calyx has five very narrow lobes, which are hairy and as long as the tube; the throat of the calyx is closed by a dense ring of white hairs.
Growing in erect clumps one to two feet high, the plants form conspicuous patches along highways and cover many pastures. The leaves are short-stalked and narrowed at both ends, the margins being sharply toothed. The purple floral leaves are oblong, with the midrib prolonged into a slender bristle or awn. These numerous bracts curve downward and overlap, the lower ones being longer.
The purple horsemint is common on plains from Mexico to Missouri and Kansas and ranges eastward to Florida. It blooms from May to August but is most profuse in June.
The monardas are North American plants named in honor of Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish physician and botanist. Some are valued for their perfume oils, and some have a slight medicinal value. The purple horsemint is rich in nectar, but the honey produced is not of the first quality. The dried plants are used in hens’ nests to drive off mites and fleas.
Plains Lemon Monarda (Monarda pectinata) is the common horsemint on the dry western plains in the state and ranges to Arizona and Nebraska. The flowers are pink or white but are not spotted with purple. The floral leaves are lance-shaped.
