Photos courtesy of Jane and Robert Dorn. Hover over image for name of plant.
Skullcap, Scutellaria brittonii, 8 inches tall, native perennial found in rocky and gravelly places.
Coyote mint or mountain beebalm, Monardella odoratissima, 12 inches tall, prefers moist places in full sun.
Horsemint or purple beebalm, Monarda fistulosa, and cultivars, 2 feet tall, easily found in area nurseries. Transplants easily.
Giant (or anise) Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum (also called hummingbird mint), 3 feet tall, blooms July through September. Found for sale at nurseries.
Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Feb. 19, 2017
Introducing the mint family: from here, there and everywhere
By Barb Gorges
I was thinking a good winter pastime would be to research the mint family, Lamiaceae of which there are 7,500 species. I found tales of the good, the bad and the ugly.
Some mints were invited over to the New World because they were thought to be good garden plants, capable of providing medicinal uses, if not culinary flavor.
But some of them escaped the picket fences, becoming weeds that hang out on the dusty edges of civilization. Some poisoned livestock. Others just didn’t fit in the preferred landscape and have been periodically eradicated, especially the ones that insist on infiltrating the monoculture of lawn.
New World natives, while never originally confined to the cultivated garden, were valued for their medicinal know-how, but over time some recipes have been lost. They have been admired for their beauty and ability to thrive, each in its favorite wild place, providing sustenance to the local wildlife population. Only recently have we invited them into our cities and towns. But often we expect them to be made over into a showier version of themselves.
No matter where mints are from, they almost always share square stems and opposite leaves and they smell nice when you brush against them or crush their leaves.
Well-established garden mints
Immigrating people often take along their favorite plants from home. A surprising number of our favorite cooking herbs we grow in Cheyenne are mints that have travelled:
–Basil, Ocimum basilicum, traces its roots to India but is important to many cultures from Mexico to southeast Asia;
–Spearmint, Mentha spicata, Europe and Asia;
–Peppermint, Mentha x peperita, Europe and Middle East;
–Oregano, Origanum vulgare, Eurasia;
–Sweet marjoram, Origanum majorana, Middle East;
–Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, Mediterranean;
–Garden sage, Salvia officinalis, Mediterranean;
–Common thyme, Thymus vulgaris, Europe;
–Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, Mediterranean;
–Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, Europe, Iran, Central Asia.
Garden mint turned weed
Horehound, Marrubium vulgare, is considered a medicinal herb, but has escaped cultivation. Originally from Europe, North Africa and Asia, it is now listed in the handbook, “Weeds of the West,” because it has invaded our native grasslands, including here in southeast Wyoming. Wherever there is a disturbance in the natural landscape, look for it. It’s considered a weed because it is unpalatable to livestock.
Robert Dorn, in his book, “Vascular Plants of Wyoming,” lists other weedy mints in our county:
–Creeping Charlie, Glechoma hederacea, Eurasia, common in lawns, attracts bees, has been used in beer and cheese making, but is toxic to cattle and horses;
–Dead nettle, Laminum amplexicaule, Eurasia and North Africa, problem in croplands and newly seeded lawns though one variety is considered good landscape ground cover;
–Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca, Eurasia, an herbal remedy, introduced for bees, now invasive;
–Lanceleaf sage, Salvia reflexa, Eurasian ornamental, listed in “Weeds of the West” because it is poisonous to livestock when chopped into or mixed with other feed.
Exotic and native mints excel
But here’s a good mint that has become a naturalized in Laramie County and elsewhere in North America: catnip, Nepeta cataria. It is native to Eurasia and Africa. A hybrid, Nepeta x fassennii, known as garden catmint “Walker’s Low,” became the perennial plant of the year in 2007.
For every difficult mint, there are more mints that contribute positively to society. Here at the north end of the Front Range, and elsewhere in the drylands of the west, we are looking for plants for our gardens that don’t need much water. Some of those are natives and others from similar landscapes on the other side of the world.
Take Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, straight from the steppes of central Asia. It’s become extremely popular around here, plant it and forget it, but I don’t think anyone has taken advantage of its Old World reputation as a medicinal, or put the flowers in salad or crushed them for dye.
Water-frugal homeowners are replacing lawn with various creeping thymes, Thymus spp., and all of them hail from Europe, North Africa or Asia.
Horticulturists are always working on improvements and a catalogue like High Country Gardens shows examples. You’ll notice cultivars (cultivated varieties) with cute names. The improvements can be better cold tolerance, better drought tolerance, longer blooming and or bigger, brighter blooms. Some species are native to Turkey, like a type of lamb’s ear, Stachys lavandulifolius, or another from Arizona, another lamb’s ear, Stachys coccineus.
Wyoming natives
What I am more interested in meeting these days are the Wyoming natives, the plants that know how to get along with the native wildlife, including birds, bats, bees, butterflies, and other insects.
Looking again at Robert Dorn’s book, among the mints found in southeast Wyoming I saw:
–Dragonhead, Dracocephalum parviflorum;
–Drummond’s false pennyroyal, Hedeoma drummondii (used as a minty flavoring in Mexico);
–False dragonhead, Physostegia parviflora (related to obedient plant);
–Selfheal, Prunella vulgaris (a common lawn “weed” and Holarctic native—native to northern areas around the globe);
— Canada germander, Teucrium canadense.
Cultivated natives
These plants don’t show up in Dorn’s book he coauthored with his wife, Jane: “Growing Native Plants of the Rocky Mountain Area.” It could mean they aren’t showy enough or perhaps too difficult to grow. *
However, Dorn and Dorn mention these other Rocky Mountain mint cousins for our gardens:
–Giant (or anise) hyssop, Agastache foeniculum, also called hummingbird mint;
–Horsemint or purple beebalm, Monarda fistulosa;
–Coyote mint or mountain beebalm, Monardella odoratissima;
–Skullcap, Scutellaria brittonii.
Problem family members
Some gardeners have banned all mints from their gardens because they have heard they spread uncontrollably. That is true in my experience with the mentha species.
My chocolate mint, Mentha × piperita ‘Chocolate Mint,’ was well-behaved for 10-15 years until the summer I pruned back the big rosebush nearby and gave it more sun. It went ballistic. By fall I was ripping it out with my bare hands. Standard advice has been to keep crazy mints in pots so they can’t spread.
My lemon balm goes to seed before I notice and seedlings pop up the next year, but it never complains when I dig it up to share and make room for other plants.
Live and let live
The old-time culinary mints share my same raised bed and keep each other in check. Even the Russian sage hasn’t gotten out of hand as it would in a more open spot.
Maybe it’s time to try some of those new native cultivars and spice things up—and see what the bees think.
Note:
To see photos of these plants, search https://plants.usda.gov or Wikipedia, using the scientific names.
*To see Jane Dorn’s list of 25 native plants recommended for Cheyenne gardeners, and to purchase the digital version of “Growing Native Plants of the Rocky Mountain Area,” visit https://cheyenneaudubon.wordpress.com/habitat-hero/.
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