WILD BERGAMOT 



Monatda fistulosa L. 



July - August A crisply erect, square-sided stem with velvety, 



Roadsides, uplands opposite leaves and a mass of pale orchid-lavender 



l)l()oms at the top means wild bergamot. Perhaps 

 it is a weed. Its growth has that sturdy, unconquered vigor which is asso- 

 ciated with weeds. Yet in its own haunts along fences and dusty roadsides, 

 it is not truly a weed, but a native wild flower with botli charm and 

 beauty. 



The roadside flowers have a very special place in the picture of the 

 open country. They are remnants of the greater horde which, before the 

 days of steel plows and farms and highways, were massed in a tremen- 

 dous burst of color which stretched for miles across Illinois. These today 

 are only a few; luit in themselves they are enough to tell a tale of early 

 autmnn. The coloring and pattern of the bergamot flowers is contrasted 

 with the fluffy white tops of tlioi'oughwort and mountain mint, with heath 

 asters and Avreath asters and the spires of vervain, with the royal purple 

 of ironweed, and the hosts of sTinflowers, large and small. These make 

 even dusty roadsides beautiful. 



The bergamot llowers are arranged in a lound head at the toj) of 

 the stalk and in each ilower as it opens there are two stamens which stand 

 tall. By the day after, the pollen is nearly all shed and the stigma, the 

 top of the pistil, has appeared. A few hours later the shrunken anthers 

 have fallen forward and the two stigma tips occupy the same place, ready 

 to receive pollen brought by visiting insects. It is an arrangement which 

 prevents self-pollination in the bergamot. 



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