The first New York specimen of this species was collected way back in 1867 at Niagara Falls by Edwin Hunt (1837-1880), a professor of Natural Sciences at the Utica Academy who had a herbarium of 4000 specimens that was bought by Asa Gray. (New York State Museum records). This is our only species of Monarda with white flowers but they sometimes vary to pink.
There are 5 verified occurrences, all with low numbers, and 31 historical occurrences.
The short term trend is unknown as only two resurveys with population counts have been conducted since the 1980's. Those surveys documented a reduction in numbers to 1/3 to 1/5 the original population size.
The long term trend is apparently negative but few historical populations have been resurveyed.
Mowing and herbicide spraying along railroads threatens some populations. Loss of local ecotypes from crossbreeding with cultivated populations is also a threat.
Rich mesophytic forest in moist soils, Rich dry woods, Thicket, base of hill.Island in Niagara river Edge of a road through bottomland woods.Disturbed gully between two railroad line tracks, Bottomland woods. Tioga fine sandy loam. plunge basin in the center of a deep ravine Schrubby thickets, along main road (NYNHP 2015). Moist woods, thickets, ravines, and streambanks (Fernald 1950).
* probable association but not confirmed.
Basil-balm is found throughout central and western New York. There is one record from Ulster County.
Basil-balm occurs from Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee north and east to Indiana, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts and south to South Carolina.
Corolla white to ochroleucous and spotted with purple on the lower lip (rarely the corolla pink), glabrous or minutely puberulent on the abaxial suface, the upper lip without long, villous hairs; upper lip of corolla 5–8 mm long; bract blades often tinged with white (GoBotany 2015)
A flowering stem is required for positive identification of this species.
Monarda media has an unspotted red-purple corolla and bract blades tinged or suffused with purple and a much larger upper corollla lip (13-16mm). In contrast M clinopodia has a white to ochroleucous (rarely pink) corolla with a purple spotted lower lip and small upper lip 5-8 mm. M. fistulosa has a light purple (rarely purple to red-purple or white) corolla with its upper lip densely villous near its apex with hairs having pale septa vs. the upper lip abaxial surface not or only sparsely villous with hairs having red-purple septa (GoBotany 2015).
Flowering typically begins in early July and continues through mid-September.
The time of year you would expect to find Basilbalm flowering in New York.
Basilbalm
Monarda clinopodia L.
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York. 910 pp.
Holmgren, Noel. 1998. The Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual. Illustrations of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.
Mitchell, Richard S. and Gordon C. Tucker. 1997. Revised Checklist of New York State Plants. Contributions to a Flora of New York State. Checklist IV. Bulletin No. 490. New York State Museum. Albany, NY. 400 pp.
New York Natural Heritage Program. 2023. New York Natural Heritage Program Databases. Albany, NY.
Weldy, T. and D. Werier. 2010. New York flora atlas. [S.M. Landry, K.N. Campbell, and L.D. Mabe (original application development), Florida Center for Community Design and Research http://www.fccdr.usf.edu/. University of South Florida http://www.usf.edu/]. New York Flora Association http://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/, Albany, New York
Information for this guide was last updated on: April 18, 2019
Please cite this page as:
New York Natural Heritage Program. 2023.
Online Conservation Guide for
Monarda clinopodia.
Available from: https://guides.nynhp.org/basilbalm/.
Accessed September 23, 2023.