1887 - Horsemint: #10 of Root's Bee Plants

If you are thinking about what honeybees consider a delightful flower - think any mint family plant.  I suppose there might be one they shun, but I haven't heard of it yet. 

Bee balm

A. I. Root's horsemint is Monarda fistulosa.  The flower shape is familiar to anyone who has the more common (in New England) garden plant, Monarda didyma, bee balm.


Horsemint is more of a southern plant in the United States.  In 1882, Mrs. Jennie Atchley was describing the bee plant year in Texas when she said,  

"...after May 20th, horse mint begins to bloom. Then we can holloa out, Eureka, all is safe; just about the same as apiarists in the north when white clover and basswood comes in."   

 In Texas, "the dearth", when bees have a hard time finding anything in bloom, comes just before the horsemint blooms.  A gentleman from Carthage, Missouri  in 1883 commented that horsemint was usually the richest honey harvest of the year.    

Frank Chapman Pellet writes, in his 1920 book, American Honey Plants: Together with Those which are of Special Value to the Beekeeper as Sources of Pollen :

HORSEMINT (Monarda)

There are several species of horsemint, known also as bee balm, wild bergamot, etc. Some of the species are represented from New England to Texas. Figure 77 (not shown) shows M. fistulosa, the wild bergamot of the North. The corolla tubes are so deep that, as a rule, the bees are unable to reach the nectar. In some cases it is reported as yielding freely and the author has seen times when the bees were apparently getting considerable nectar from this species. 

Whether the nectar secretion is unusually abundant or the corolla tubes shortened more than is commonly the case, the author will not venture an opinion.

 In parts of Wisconsin, M. punctata, according to D. L. H. Pammel, can be depended upon to yield an abundance of nectar every season. This is probably the most important species to the beekeeper. It is found more or less commonly on sandy soil from New York to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas. 

In Texas it is the source of very large quantities of surplus honey in seasons following wet winters, and springs. The honey is a clear light amber with a decided minty flavor. It is one of the most important sources in Texas, where, together with M. clinopodioides, it is regarded very highly. In the Arkansas Valley of southern Kansas horsemint is also important, yielding as high as fifty pounds of surplus per colony.

This lovely watercolor sketch by Miss Helen Sharp.  I can't find any information on her beyond what she notes on her drawings - where she is when sketching  and the date.  Her works date between 1888 and 1910.  This sketch was done in Taunton, MA in 1910, I think. Hard to read date.

Here is another, from 1895.

And here is another artist in a book from 1800, Zorn, J., Oskamp, D.L., Afbeeldingen der artseny-gewassen met derzelver Nederduitsche en Latynsche beschryvingen, vol. 4: t. 316  (Images of the physician's crops with their Dutch and Latynian writings)