WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Square, hairy stems to 20–inches tall and branching from the base terminate in spikes with 2–5 dense whorls of white to light-purple, bilaterally-symmetrical flowers. Note the green, densely hairy bracts beneath each cluster grade from broad outer ones to narrow inner ones.

FLOWERS: May–October. The 5/8–1/2-inch (8–14 mm) long, white to light-purple flowers have an arching upper lip and a protruding lower lip with 3 lobes, with or without purple dots. The tiny tube (calyx) holding each flower has lobes with hairy margins and ends with a long, thread-like tips. Leaf-like bracts, oblong, green or with purple marks, with long bristle-like tips surround each whorl. The outer bracts are wider than the inner ones, margins densely lined with ciliate hairs.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades oblong to lance-shaped, 3/4–2-inches (2–5 cm) long, 1/4–1/2-inch wide (6–12 mm), with short stems (petioles), margins entire to slightly serrated.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils, roadsides; plains, desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper-oak, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,700–8,300 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NE, NM, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Lemon Beebalm (Purple Horsemint), M. citriodora, widespread sw NM, has whorls of purple flowers with purple dots surrounded by showy, purple oblong bracts with thread-like tips. Spotted Beebalm, M. punctata, statewide, has whitish to pinkish-lavender bracts without long bristle-tips, and flowers that vary from yellow to purplish or white with purple dots. Low Beebalm,  M. humilis (M. punctata var. humilis), in Catron, Cibola, McKinley, Sandoval, and Socorro counties, has bracts without bristle tips, an unspotted upper lip, and a white lower lip with purple spots and a purple margin (edge).

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide at low- to mid-elevations: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Curry, Dona Ana, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.