Mint Family (Labiatæ)
(A) Self-heal; Heal-all (Prunella vulgaris). Along roadsides, in fields, and on the borders of woods, everywhere throughout the country, we will find this familiar flower. The stem grows from 6 to 15 inches high and is topped with a cylindrical flower-head composed of many two-lipped, tubular, purple florets. But few of these bloom at a time, commencing at the bottom, and the flowering season extends from June to September. The leaves are sparingly toothed and seated oppositely on long stems. Usually several leaflets appear from their axils and sometimes smaller flower-heads from the axils of the upper ones.
(B) Skullcap (Scutellaria integrifolia) is one of the handsomest of the Skullcaps, the tubular, two-lipped flowers in the loose terminal spike each measuring about one inch in length. The downy stem rises from 6 to 24 inches high and is set oppositely with toothless, lance-shaped, round-ended leaves. It is found in dry ground from Mass. to Fla. and along the Gulf.
(A) Ground Ivy; Gill-over-the-ground (Nepeta hederacea). (European) is a beautiful little trailing mint that grows very profusely about country houses.
The leaves rise from the stem in pairs; they are round, with heart-shaped bases, the edge cut into rounded lobes, and their whole surface is downy and veiny. The pretty little purple flowers grow in small clusters from the axils of the leaves. The upper lip is erect and slightly notched; the lower one has three spreading lobes and is spotted with dark purple.
Ground Ivy is found in blossom from May to July throughout the eastern half of our country.
(B) Catnip (Nepeta cataria) (European) is a very common mint, introduced from Europe, the aromatic foliage of which has a very peculiar attraction for all members of the feline race. The plant has a stout, square hollow stem from 2 to 3 feet tall and is downy, as are the sage-green, toothed leaves. The lilac-white flowers are clustered on peduncles from the axils of the leaves. Catnip is common throughout our range.
(A) Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) (European) is a simple, erect-stemmed mint growing from 2 to 4 feet high. It has a very decorative effect, the leaves being large at the base of the stem and rapidly diminishing as they approach the top; the lower ones are quite long-stemmed and all are palmately slashed. The flowers grow in round clusters surrounding the stem at the axils of the leaves.
The numerous flowers composing these clusters have tiny, two-lipped, white, pink, or purple corollas and minute stamens. Both the stem and the leaves have a wooly texture and the former are strongly veined. Motherwort is commonly found about old country dwellings and along roadsides. We find it in bloom from June until August. It is a much more leafy species than most of the mints.
(B) Hedge Nettle; Wound-wort (Stachys palustris) is a tall mint (1 to 3 feet) with a downy-bristly stem and purple, tubular, two-lipped flowers in a terminal spike and from the axils of the upper leaves; lower lip streaked and spotted. Common in moist ground from N. S. to Manitoba and southward.
Oswego Tea; Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) is one of our most brilliantly colored wild flowers. It grows along the shady borders of woodland streams or pools where its vivid coloring is in strong contrast with the deep greens of the surrounding vegetation. The stem is hairy and rather rough; it attains heights of two feet or more. The short-stemmed, broad lance-shaped leaves are light green, sharply toothed, and rather thin.
The flowers grow in rounded terminal heads, composed of numerous long, tubular, scarlet florets. The upper lip is long, arched, pointed, and often notched at the tip; the lower lip is three-parted, the middle one being longer than the side ones.
Nectar, seated at the base of the long tube, can only be reached by long-tongued insects. Best adapted to it are bumblebees and certain of the butterflies. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird, too, attracted to this, his favorite color, often partakes of the sweets. From July until September this beautiful species blooms in suitable localities from Quebec to Manitoba and southward to Ga. and Mo.