Bee balm is a stout erect aromatic annual to 16" tall with short curled-down hairs on the stem, and leaves that are serrulate, narrow-lanceolate to oblanceolate, glabrous to finely strigose, with very short petioles.  The corolla is white to pink, to 1" long, and the calyx tube is about 1/4" long and densely puberulent within the throat.  Bee balm is an inhabitant of dry washes, rocky slopes and pinyon-juniper woodland from 4000' to 5000' in the New York Mts, and blooms from July to September.  It is the only So. California member of the genus Monarda.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Monarda 2) pectinata.
Pronunciation: mo-NAR-da pek-tin-AY-ta.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.