LABIATAE 



MINT FAMILY 



WOOD MINT 

 Blephilia hirsuta (Pursh) Benth. 



One of the few flowers found blooming in damp woods from 

 May to September is the Wood Mint, a perennial quite common 

 from Quebec and Vermont to Minnesota, south to Georgia and 

 Texas. Its square stem is 

 1-3 feet high, more or less 

 branched and usually quite 

 hairy. The leaves are sharp- 

 ly toothed and 2-4 inches 

 long. 



The flowers are in i to 

 several axillary and terminal 

 whorls which often become 

 globose. They are pollinated 

 mostly by bees. The calyx 

 is plainly 2-lipped and beset 

 with long hairs. The upper 

 lip has 3 teeth with long 

 awns, and the lower has 2 

 shorter and awnless teeth. 

 The corolla is pale purple 

 with conspicuous darker 

 spots. It is distinctly 2-lip- 

 ped, the upper lip being 

 erect and unlobed and the 

 lower 3-lobed. The middle 



lobe of the lower lip is narrower than the 2 lateral 

 lobes and notched at the end. The 2 stamens are at- 

 tached to the corolla tube and extend from it. The ovary is 

 deeply 4-parted and the slender style is 2-cleft at the top. The 

 fruit consists of 4 smooth i -seeded nutlets. 



The Downy Wood Mint, Blephilia ciliata (L.) Raf., usually 

 grows in dry open places and can be distinguished by its nearly 

 sessile and slightly toothed leaves. The stem, 1-2 feet high, is sparsely 

 hairy 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 trom June to August. 



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