Monarda Fistulosa is a perennial wildflower that comes from the same family of plants as excellent-ice-cream-flavour-when-paired-with-choc-chip, mint. It’s leaves are long (5-8cm), lance-shaped and toothed but atop them sit little clusters of between 20 and 50 beautiful little flowers.
You possibly know monarda fistulosa by its more common name, wild bergamot. Its a storied plant when it comes to medicinal uses, used particularly widely by many Native Americans, including the Menominee, Ojibwa and Winnebago tribes. Its antiseptic qualities meant it was sometimes used to treat skin infections and minor wounds and the thymol that it produces naturally is still used in modern mouthwashes today. Bergamot was most commonly used to treat the common cold however, made into a tea and sweetened with honey…
…Which brings us to our favourite name for this particular FOTW: the bee balm. You see, slightly dubious medicinal qualities aside, there’s no disputing the monarda fistulosa’s excellence as a honey plant. It’s sweet sweet nectar is irresistible to bees, and unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you know how important that is for our environment right now.
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![Bergomot Pt](https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergomot-pt.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=ebcb8b8ce5210fab3709ef4ea3f131ad 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergomot-pt.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=4a7fd2d3a9456a460c0b27e6c133032b 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergomot-pt.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=afc6346e78cd414cb780073c0fd11919 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergomot-pt.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=1de6a50bf2839f7a50b7d75a07efb952 400w)
![Bergamot Ls](https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergamot-ls.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=aebb48679b8fd8f3c16484d9a4e4c86f 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergamot-ls.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=8ed9cb9fc75228c02f9be4bb0bfbb800 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergamot-ls.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=9f829a6d1801d4c8d6105c5f098ad926 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/Bergamot-ls.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=5820d8ab9cb8842d79d37d7f517f8366 400w)