Sunday, October 24, 2010

Horse Mint, Monarda punctata

The floral bracts on this denizen of dry sand are more noticeable than the flowers. Pleasantly aromatic, even the dried stems smell good, and they provide one of the highlights of a winter trek in the sand country. "Punctata" means dotted or spotted. Can you see why?

2 comments:

Scott Namestnik said...

Sweet photo!

Keith Board said...

Thanks Scott! I saw dried stems of this plant today and crushed a few. Ahh, good smell! They have lots of new green leaves around the base, and I believe these will turn a dark maroon color when the weather gets cold.