Hairy wood mint, Blephilia hirsuta (Pursh) Benth., flower of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Hairy Wood Mint	Blephilia hirsuta (Pursh) Benth.	Mint	Upland	Early Summer
Other names and notes	(Hoary Wood Mint, Hairy pagoda-plant) A mint family plant of moist woods with lance to egg shaped hairy leaves on short stalks; the stem square and hairy, one to three feet high. Flowers appear on the stem above leaf pairs, are pale purple with darker spots and of an irregular tube shape. Like most mints it is aromatic. The genus, Blephilia, refers to the hairy fringes on the flower bracts and is Greek for eyelash. The species name means covered with hair.


These plants are blooming at the end of June.		Above: Note the "eyelashes" on the bracts from which comes the genus name.


The dark purple dots are characteristic of the flower.	Note the hairy leaves and stem.

Notes: The plant was not included on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of Garden plants and has been introduced since. It is reported as native to Minnesota but the only populations were in the five counties of the SE corner of the state where it is across the Mississippi River from a reported Wisconsin population. Curiously, there is also a reported population in Cook county in the far Arrowhead. It's range is from Minnesota east to the coast, where in New England several states have listed it as endangered or threatened. The Garden population will preserve a plant seldom seen in Minnesota.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

012011