1. Monarda bradburiana L.C. Beck (beebalm, Bradbury beebalm)

M. russeliana Nutt. ex Sims, misapplied

Pl. 437 a, b; Map 1967

Plants perennial. Stems 25–50 cm long, unbranched or less commonly few-branched, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with fine, spreading hairs, more densely so around the nodes. Leaves all sessile or the larger leaves sometimes with petioles to 5 mm long, the median leaves the largest. Leaf blades 2–9 cm long, ovate to lanceolate or ovate-triangular, rounded to shallowly cordate at the base, angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins with widely spaced, fine teeth, usually also hairy, the surfaces glabrous or sparsely to moderately pubescent with fine, spreading to loosely appressed hairs. Inflorescences consisting of only 1 terminal flower cluster (rarely 2 on robust plants), the outer bracts 15–20 mm long, narrowly ovate to linear-lanceolate, the margins entire but hairy, the surfaces usually glabrous, green to pale green or pinkish- to purplish-tinged. Innermost bracts 5–10 mm long, mostly linear, the margins hairy. Calyces 9–14 mm long, the outer surface moderately to densely pubescent with minute, spreading hairs, sometimes with sparse longer hairs or minute, gland-tipped hairs toward the tip (and along the margins of the lobes), densely bristly-hairy in the throat, the lobes 2–4 mm long, long-tapered above a very short, triangular base, but lacking with a bristlelike extension. Corollas 24–38 mm long, white or pale pinkish- to lavender-tinged, usually with purple spots or mottling on the lower lip, sparsely to moderately pubescent with fine nonglandular hairs externally, lacking sessile glands, the lips with longer, denser hairs toward the tips, hairy in the throat, the upper lip about as long as the tube, slightly arched, the lower lip somewhat shorter than the tube, 3-lobed with a pair of short lateral lobes and a flangelike 2-toothed extension at the tip of the central lobe. Stamens conspicuously exserted from the corolla. Nutlets 1.5–2.0 mm long, yellowish brown to brown. April–June.

Scattered in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions, north locally along the Mississippi River to Marion County (Indiana to Iowa and Kansas south to Alabama, Louisiana, and Oklahoma). Edges of upland prairies and glades; mesic to dry upland forests, savannas, and less commonly banks of streams and rivers and margins of sinkholes; also old fields, railroads, and roadsides; often on acidic substrates.

Monarda bradburiana is gaining attention in the native plant nursery trade as an ornamental that has a shorter stature and earlier flowering period than does the more commonly grown M. fistulosa.

Steyermark (1963) called this species M. russeliana, following Fernald (1944), who reluctantly advocated the application of that name to the species present in Missouri and surrounding states, based on his interpretation of the type materials of M. bradburiana and M. russeliana. Scora (1965, 1967) presented strong evidence for a return to McClintock and Epling’s (1942) interpretation of the nomenclature. His conclusions have been followed by some (R. E. Brooks, 1986) but not all (Gleason and Cronquist, 1991) subsequent authors and in the present work. True M. russeliana is restricted to southeastern Oklahoma and adjacent portions of Arkansas and Texas; it has mostly more than 1 flower cluster in the inflorescence and bears prominent stalked glands on the calyces.