Green in Winter: Monarda punctata, Plant Quiz Solved!

Congratulations to Andrew "The Commander" Blackburn for correctly identifying the winter leaves of Monarda punctata, Horse Mint. A common plant of dry sand in the dunes region of Indiana, this attractive mint produces pale yellow flowers with magenta spots (punctata = dotted). Upper bracts of the plant are pale pinkish or lavender and get a lot more attention than the flowers, which also are attractive. The entire plant has an extremely good minty smell, even the brunnescent, dried inflorescence in winter.

Posted earlier: Can you name this plant? It was photographed near Portage, Indiana on January 8, 2012. Good luck! I have no idea what the white blotches are on the leaves, but my guess is fungal growth.

This is how the plant looked in August, 2011 at Ogden Dunes, Indiana.

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?

Symbiosis at Cressmoor Prairie

The amazing dedication, hard work, and financial contributions of people at the Shirley Heinze Land Trust make scenes like these possible. Plants and animals are surviving and hopefully flourishing! All three photos are from Sunday, July 12 at Cressmoor Prairie Nature Preserve in Hobart. It is Indiana's largest remnant of black soil prairie!

Asclepias sullivantii (Prairie Milkweed)

and

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Monarda fistulosa (Wild Bergamont) and Silver-Spotted Skipper

Asclepias incarnata (Swamp Milkweed) and Great Golden Digger Wasp

Foto Phun

Here are some fun photos!!

I have been photographing every species of Asclepias I can find, in prepartion for the slide show. I am up to 7 species. Here is Asclepias variegata from Wayne County, MO. The flowers are white with a band of purple-pink around the middle.


Campsis radicans blooming on the side of my house. It volunteered and we haven't interfered. Campsis means "curvature", in reference to the stamens and radicans, of course, means "rooting", in reference to its habit. Fernald has "Cow-itch" as a common name for this species. I can't imagine the source.


Here is one of our more jazzy spring wildflowers in Missouri; Monarda bradburiana. The stems are unbranched and the leaves are sessile. Named in honor of John Bradbury (1768-1823) who collected plants with Thomas Nuttall while retracing the steps of Lewis and Clark in 1809-1811. In December of 1811, he sent the specimens he collected back to England on a freighter. He left the next day on the passenger boat. He was in New Madrid during the earthquake of 1811 and was delayed several weeks due to the devastation. By the time he made it to New Orleans, the war of 1812 broke out and he was detained for 5 years due to hostility between the US and Great Britian. When he finally made it home, he found that Fredrick Pursh, the scoundrel that he was, had broken into his specimens and described them all!! Robbed of his scientific glory, he returned to America and never took up botany again. I often raise a glass in honor of John Bradbury, and all the John Bradburys of the world.