Hairy Wood Mint

Perennial  •  $6, 4-inch pot

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Height	3 ft
Spacing	2 ft
Sun Exposure	Part Sun to Shade
Soil Moisture	Medium
Bloom Color	Pale Purple, White
Bloom Time	June, July, Aug
Companion Plantings	Tall Bellflower, Poke Milkweed, Palm Sedge
Special Attributes

Blephilia hirsuta

This woodland mint is a boon for pollinators, attracting many long-tongued bees, including mason, leaf-cutting, carpenter, and cuckoo bees, among others. Additional pollinators including Halictid bees, flies, wasps, bee flies, and the occasionally butterfly and skipper, these all primarily seeking nectar. Mammalian herbivores readily avoid this plant, as they find the foliage “repugnant,” a lucky characteristic shared by all others in the Mint family (Lamiaceae).

Unique flowers are pale purple to white and have purple spots on the lower lip. Following its flowering period, the lower foliage may decline, and this plant is somewhat susceptible to powdery milder; this is non-lethal to the plant, but an effort should be made to site in an open area with good air circulation. This is probably the most shade tolerant of all native mint species.

The foliage of this plant is highly aromatic, but there is not a lot of information on its potential culinary uses. The Cherokee likely used this plant as a poultice to treat headaches. Hairy Wood Mint was originally classified as Monarda hirsuta, but was reclassified by George Bentham to its current binomial name in the early 19th century; currently, only 2 other species belong in the genus Blephilia, one other being the very similar B. ciliata, Downy Wood Mint.

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