PLANT: Perennial, suffrutescent herbs; stems 1 to many from base, erect or decumbent.

LEAVES: sessile or short petiolate, glandular punctate, linear, lanceolate, elliptic, or ovate; base acuminate; margins entire or serrulate.

INFLORESCENCE: subhemispheric heads, many flowered, dense, 1 to several per stem; bracts subtending inflorescences.

FLOWERS: perfect, sessile; calyx actinomorphic, the teeth triangular, subequal, erect; corolla 5 lobed, sub bilabiate, the upper lip 2 lobed, the lower lip 3 lobed, the lobes all similar, the lobe apices with punctate glands; stamens 4, erect, distinct, exserted, 1 pair longer than the other or subequal, the anther sacs subparallel to divaricate; ovary 4 lobed; stigma unevenly 2 lobed.

NUTLETS: oblong to oval, brown at maturity, smooth. x = 21.

NOTES: Ca. 19 spp.; w N. Amer. (Latin: little Monarda). Bentham, G. 1834. Labiat. gen. spec. 331; Epling, C. C. 1925. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 12:1 107. Most commonly growing in rocky areas.

REFERENCES: Trauth Nare, Amy E. 2003. Lamiaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 35(2).