← Wiki

Plant

Wild bergamot

Monarda fistulosa

Also known as: bee balm, Monarda fistulosa, horsemint

A native perennial mint of meadows and prairies across North America — distinctive lavender-pink tubular flowers in dense head-like clusters in mid-summer. Aromatic leaves smell of bergamot orange (the source of Earl Grey tea's flavor) and were historically brewed as 'Oswego tea' by indigenous peoples and colonists. Top-tier native pollinator plant — particularly attractive to native bees and hummingbirds. Found in Staten Island's meadows and pollinator gardens.

Scientific

Monarda fistulosa is a 2–4 ft perennial mint (Lamiaceae) native to most of North America. Square stems (mint family characteristic), opposite leaves, dense terminal head-like flower clusters of tubular [[lavender|lavender]]-pink flowers. Strongly aromatic — leaves smell of [[bergamot|bergamot orange]] (the citrus that flavors Earl Grey tea), source of one common name.

Long indigenous and colonial medicinal use. Iroquois, Ojibwe, and other Northeastern peoples used the plant medicinally — for colds, sore throats, fevers, and as a tea. Colonists adopted the species during the post-1773 tea boycott, calling it “Oswego tea” after Oswego, NY, where it was widely used.

Pollinator value: among the highest-rated native plants for native bee and hummingbird support. Long flowering window (June–September depending on conditions) extends nectar availability through summer.

On Staten Island

Present in SI meadows and pollinator gardens. Native-plant restoration plantings at [[mount-loretto-unique-area|Mount Loretto]], Greenbelt clearings, and GreenThumb-supported community gardens. Increasingly common as native-plant gardening spreads on the borough.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

  • Instance of: [[indigenous-foodways]]
  • Substrate of: [[common-eastern-bumblebee]]
  • Member of: [[plants]]
  • Contained by: [[staten-island]]

Sources

  • USDA NRCS Plants Database: wild bergamot
  • Northeastern indigenous-medicine and Oswego-tea documentation
  • Xerces Society pollinator-plant references

Rooted in life.

What links here, and how

Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.

General

shares approach with

3 inbound links · 4 outbound