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What's blooming in Bath, Highland
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
 | | Bergamot, also called bee balm, is a common sun-loving wildflower found in fields, along creeks and beside roads in the Highlands from mid to late summer. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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WARM SPRINGS - Many members of the mint family grow and bloom in the Highlands, including the well-known wispy flowered bergamot.
Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, is also called bee balm. Another member of the family, scarlet bergamot, blooms earlier in the summer and is commonly known as Oswego Tea. Both wild varieties are cultivated in gardens along with 20 hybrids available from seed and garden suppliers.
All wild members of the bergamot family exude a strongly scented oil when the leaves are crushed. The oil smells similar to the oil from the rind of the bergamot orange for which the mint is named.
The leaves are used for teas and the oil has been used as a flavoring and for medicinal purposes. Because of the name, many people think the local bergamots are the flavoring of the popular Earl Grey tea. Actually the tea is a mixture of Chinese tea and the oil from the rind of the bergamot orange, indigenous to and grown in Italy.
The bergamot family attracts many species of butterfly and is a favorite of hummingbirds. The caterpillar stages of a few species of moths and butterflies feed exclusively on the leaves of bergamot.
Other spectacular wildflowers to watch for this week include yellow fringed orchid in sunny seeps and occasionally in damp, sunny woodlands. Along streams and creeks look for the brilliant red spikes of cardinal flower.
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