_Monarda didyma_
_Flowers_--Scarlet, clustered in a solitary, terminal, rounded head of
dark-red calices, with leafy bracts below it. Calyx narrow, tubular,
sharply 5-toothed; corolla tubular, widest at the mouth, 2-lipped, 1 1/2
to 2 inches long; 2 long, anther-bearing stamens ascending, protruding;
1 pistil; the style 2-cleft. _Stem:_ 2 to 3 ft. tall. _Leaves:_
Aromatic, opposite, dark green, oval to oblong lance-shaped, sharply
saw-edged, of ten hairy beneath, petioled; upper leaves and bracts
often red.
_Preferred Habitat_--Moist soil, especially near streams, in hilly or
mountainous regions.
_Flowering Season_--July-September.
_Distribution_--Canada to Georgia, west to Michigan.
Gorgeous, glowing scarlet heads of Bee Balm arrest the dullest eye,
bracts and upper leaves often taking on blood-red color, too, as if it
had dripped from the lacerated flowers. Where their vivid doubles are
reflected in a shadowy mountain stream, not even the Cardinal Flower is
more strikingly beautiful. Thrifty clumps transplanted from Nature’s
garden will spread about ours and add a splendor like the flowers of
salvia, next of kin, if only the roots get a frequent soaking.
With even longer flower tubes than the Wild Bergamot’s the Bee Balm
belies its name, for, however frequently bees may come about for nectar
when it rises high, only long-tongued bumblebees could get enough to
compensate for their trouble. Butterflies, which suck with their wings
in motion, plumb the depths. The ruby-throated humming bird--to which
the Brazilian salvia of our gardens has adapted itself--flashes about
these whorls of Indian plumes just as frequently--of course transferring
pollen on his needle-like bill as he darts from flower to flower. Even
the protruding stamens and pistil take on the prevailing hue. Most of
the small, blue, or purple flowered members of the mint family cater to
bees by wearing their favorite color; the bergamot charms butterflies
with magenta, and tubes so deep the short-tongued mob cannot pilfer
their sweets; and from the frequency of the humming bird’s visits, from
the greater depth of the Bee Balm’s tubes and their brilliant, flaring
red--an irresistibly attractive color to the ruby-throat--it would
appear that this is a bird flower. Certainly its adaptation is quite as
perfect as the salvia’s. Mischievous bees and wasps steal nectar they
cannot reach legitimately through bungholes of their own making in the
bottom of the slender casks.