Horsemint(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
Horsemint is very common in open fields, usually growing amidst tall grass and other plants, and the colors of its blossoms range from almost white to a rather deep lavender.
The leaves of horsemint have a citrus smell, but the most noticeable odor comes from the dried seed heads.
Other names for this plant are plains horsemint, tall horsemint, lemon-mint, and lemon beebalm.
Spotted horsemint is an herbaceous to semi-woody, rather shrubby and gangly, multi-branched perennial (sometimes an annual) to 3 or 4 ft (0.9-1.2 m) tall.
Spotted horsemint is native to eastern North America from Vermont to Minnesota and south to Florida, eastern Texas and Mexico.
Spotted horsemint is a little coarse for the formal garden but is just perfect for the wild or meadow garden and for attracting butterflies.
It was found that although certain special methods of treatment had a marked effect on the percentage of yield of oil and of Thymol in the oil, the greatest yield was obtained by promoting the growth of the plant and thus securing the largest possible yield of herb per acre.
Distillation of the Horsemint herb is carried on by the usual methods in practice for distilling such volatile oils as Peppermint and Spearmint.
The English Horsemint (Mentha sylvestris) is a strong-scented plant, frequent in damp, waste ground, usually growing in masses, with downy, egg-shaped leaves tapering to a point, with finely toothed margins, their undersides very white with silky hairs.
Monarda bradburiana Horsemint beebalm wild Bergamot potted plant(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
Bee Balm is a pleasantly scented member of the mint family growing only 18 inches tall with light lavender to white flowers with purple spots on the petals.
Monarda russeliana Horsemint Eastern Beebalm seeds are very small, no pretreatment is needed for germination.
Native Monarda russeliana Horsemint Eastern Beebalm plants occur naturally in open and dry rocky woods, roadsides, and borders of glades from Alabama to Texas north to Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas.
But it is nothing like the Horsemint (Agastache urticifolia) - a more distant cousin in the Mint Family (Lamiaceae) - I was going to write about in the first place.
The Horsemint I was going to write about is a western wildflower, which grows in dry, open places.
It's also known as Nettleleaf Giant Hyssop, and Nettleleaf Horsemint, and though it was very abundant where I found it, it is listed as endangered in southern British Columbia.
Native Monarda citriodora Lemon Horsemint Beebalm Bergamot wild flower Seed & Plant(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
Lemon Mint is excellent for cutting, it's small petals are white or lavender often dotted with purple and very aromatic with a pleasant, citrus aroma when the leaves are crushed.
Monarda citriodora lemon Horsemint grows wild in the rocky upland prairies and pastures of the southeastern tallgrass region.
This map shows areas where native Monarda citriodora lemon horsemint wild flower plants grow wild but it can be planted and will grow over most of the Midwest and Eastern US.
