Plant of the Week
Russell's Beebalm
Latin: Monarda russelliana
In an out-of-the-way nook in my shaded garden, grows a small member of the
mint tribe, Monarda russelliana, Russell’s beebalm. It grows there
because it was planted by nature’s hand, not my own.
I am fond of this little plant, not just for the handsome flowers that appear
each spring, but because it tells a tale of botanical exploration, friendship
and death.
Russell’s beebalm is one of the dozen species of wild bergamot’s found
throughout much of North America. It occurs from southern Illinois to Texas,
with the Arkansas River drainage making up a big part of its range. It grows
about 2 feet tall with square stems and 2 and one-half inch long, opposite,
fragrant leaves typical of the mints.
It is the earliest of the monardas to flower, with blooms usually appearing
in my garden during the first half of May. The "flower" is a terminal cluster of
blooms called a verticillaster that contains numerous, two-lipped white, spotted
pink, flowers. The flower head is almost 3 inches across and a favorite of
butterflies when in bloom.
This plant’s discovery resulted from the botanical exploration of Thomas
Nuttall (1786-1859), the first botanist to explore Arkansas. Nuttall was an
Englishman with a strong interest in natural history. He came to the United
States in 1808 and made contact with Philadelphia luminaries who funded his
exploration ventures.
The second of his three major trips was in 1819 as he tried to follow the
expedition of Zebulon Pike (of Pike’s Peak fame) up the Arkansas River to the
southern Rockies. His trip is recounted in his A Journal of Travels into the
Arkansas Territory, first published in 1821 and reprinted many times,
including recently by the University of Arkansas Press.
On May 1, he arrived at the garrison along the Arkansas River now called Fort
Smith, which he described as consisting of two block houses with lines of cabins
or barracks and home to about 70 men. The fort was established in 1817 to
prevent war between the Osage and Cherokees Indians. Both tribes were being
forced from their ancestral homelands to the western edge of the deciduous
forest in Arkansas Territory and conflicts were inevitable.
At the fort, the 33-year-old Nuttall met Dr. Thomas Russell (1793-1819), a
doctor in the employ of the garrison. The two men of science developed a
friendship and botanizing together in the prairies around the river. At that
time, Nuttall described the landscape as checkered with small mounds and
peppered with widely scattered trees in a park-like setting. The prairie face of
the region was maintained by the Indians who periodically torched the grass to
provide better grazing for the deer, elk and buffalo on which they relied.
On May 3, they had strayed far enough afield that the men camped out but
neither were able to sleep because a persistent mosquito attack kept them from
slumber. During the next couple months, Nuttall often complained of the
mosquitos, but at that time they were only thought to be a nuisance, not
carriers of disease. He continued his travels up river, but by August was near
death from what he described as "bilious fever."
Finally, in September, he made his way back to the fort where he discovered
that "ague (malaria) and bilious fever (had) spread throughout the territory in
a very unusual manner." His friend, Dr. Russell, and a missionary sent to
minister to the Osage (about 100 of them also died) had "paid the debt of
nature" and "sleep securely in the unhallowed earth."
Because of illness, Nuttall abandoned his plans to make the Rockies and
returned to the United States. He landed the professorship of botany at Harvard
and remained there until the wanderlust of travel called again in 1834. He
joined the group headed west that blazed the Oregon Trail.
Bilious fever was a catch-all phrase in the early 19th century. Fevers evoked
the kind of fear then that the word "cancer" does today; medicine had not yet
grasped the "germ" theory and cures were unpredictable. You either got better or
you didn’t. Probably the disease that swept through Arkansas that summer was
Yellow Fever, caused by a mosquito borne virus that originally was introduced
from Africa. Epidemics of the disease occurred periodically until the last
outbreak in the United States took place in New Orleans in1908.
Monardas are easy plants to grow. The most common monarda seen in gardens is
the mid-summer flowering M. didyma, which is an aggressive spreader in
the border. Russell’s beebalm is more stayed in character and does not have the
aggressive rhizomatous roots of it’s kin.
All do best in fertile, moist ground, but they are in no way finicky about
this requirement. While my Russell’s beebalm grows in shade, it probably would
be happier in brighter locations where the plant would produce a better show. It
can be propagated easily by springtime division or by seed.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
July 16, 2004
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