I just love to say Monarda. It is such a funny word.
The genus Monarda was named in honor of Nicolas Bautista Monardes, a 16th century Spanish physician and botanist. Indians living along the Oswego River in New York introduced early settlers to a tea made from dried bee balm. The settlers called it "Oswego tea" and began making it themselves. Oswego tea was popular with early colonists when tea became scarce after the Boston Tea Party.
Common Name: | Bee Balm, Wild Bergamont, Oswego Tea, Horsemint, Bergamont |
The flowers of this aromatic herb are reminiscent of fireworks or a pompom, with the center bursting forth and the back petals radiating all around. Its flowers come in pink, red, mauve, purple and white and are particularly attractive to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here. Thanks to Susan at a Southern Daydreamer.
3 comments:
Interesting and very pretty Bonnie. We could learn a lot about the use of flowers. Thanks for sharing the interesting facts about this flower.
Hug, Jeanne
Isn't that color great! Very pretty.
Jeanni
This flower is neat. It's kind of hard for me to describe it, usually with a flower or plant I haven't seen before, I'm able to see, well, it looks like this, but with this one I can't really do that.
But that's good, it's so unique, it's indescribable.
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