WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Noticeably fragrant and with showy whorls of flowers, this single to multi-branched, leafy plant can reach 1–3-feet tall. Like all members of the Mint Family, the stems are square and leaves opposite. The plants can form dense stands. Note the whorls of spotted yellow, pink, to white flowers and the pinkish, leaf-like bracts without thread-like tips beneath the whorls.

FLOWER: April–August. Each stem has a spike of 2–7 dense whorls of bilaterally-symmetrical, spotted flowers with white, yellow, or pink petals. The 1/4–1-inch long (6–25 mm), tubular flowers have an erect, unlobed upper lip, often purple-spotted, that arches helmet-like over 2 stamens. The cupped bottom lip has 3 lobes usually with purple dots. The tiny tube (calyx) holding each flower has lobes with hairy margins and tips pointed but not thread-like. The clusters are surrounded by whitish to pinkish-lavender, leaf-like bracts with pointed but not thread-like tips.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades hairy, lance-shaped, 1 1/2–2 3/4-inches (4–7 cm) long, tapering with short stalks (petioles); margins usually toothed.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils; oak shinnery, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,500–7,400 feet.

RANGE: Widespread KA, NM, OK, TX, and eastern U.S.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 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). 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. Plains Beebalm, M. pectinata, statewide, has white to pink flowers but green, lance-shaped bracts with densely hairy margins and thread-like tips.

NM COUNTIES: Western half and eastern border counties of NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Cibola, Catron, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, McKinley, Quay, Roosevelt, Sandoval, Socorro, Torrance, Valencia.