-ABIATAE MINT FAMILY 
WOOD MINT 
Blephilia hirsuta (Pursh) Benth. 
One of the few flowers found blooming in damp woods from 
Mlay to September is the Wood Mint, a perennial quite common 
rom Quebec and Vermont to Minnesota, south to Georgia and 
[exas. Its square stem is 
'-3 feet high, more or less 
yranched and usually quite 
iairy. The leaves are sharp- 
y toothed and 2-4 inches 
ong. 
The flowers are in I to 
everal axillary and terminal 
vhorls which often become 
slobose. They are pollinated 
nostly by bees. The calyx 
s plainly 2-lipped and beset 
with long hairs. The upper 
ip has 3 teeth with long 
uwns, and the lower has 2 
shorter and awnless teeth. 
[he corolla is pale purple 
with conspicuous darker 
spots. It is distinctly 2-lip- " 
sed, the upper lip being we 
rect and unlobed and the 
ower 3-lobed. The middle 
obe of the lower lip is narrower than the 2 lateral 
obes and notched at the end. The 2 stamens are at- 
-ached to the corolla tube and extend from it. The ovary is 
leeply 4-parted and the slender style is 2-cleft at the top. The 
ruit consists of 4 smooth 1-seeded nutlets. 
The Downy Wood Mint, Blephilia ciliata (L.) Raf., usually 
srows in dry open places and can be distinguished by its nearly 
sessile and slightly toothed leaves. The stem, 1-2 feet high, is sparsely 
1airy or bristly above and commonly unbranched. The purple flowers, 
in a terminal spike and clustered in the uppermost axils, are like 
those of the Wood Mint except for the spots on the corolla, and are 
slightly longer. This plant ranges from Massachusetts to Wisconsin 
and south to Georgia and Missouri. It blooms from June to August. 
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