Sometimes called just “balm,” as it was in older times; we moderns like to multiply syllables. A delightful lemon-flavored mint often planted in herb gardens, from which it immediately begins plotting its escape. Unlike Spearmint, which spreads by runners, Lemon Balm seeds itself everywhere, and the little seeds can easily wash downhill a considerable distance from the planting site. Once you have lemon balm, you have it forever, and in the most unexpected places. It also pops up in vacant lots and other unmowed areas. When Gray says “sparingly escaped from gardens,” it shows us that he never tried growing the stuff.

The lemon scent and fuzzy stem and leaves are characteristic. Little white flowers appear in rows of bracts, and bes love them; in fact, the generic name means “bee” in Greek. This plant grew spontaneously at the edge of a yard in Beechview, where it was blooming in early July.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

MELÍSSA [Tourn.] L. Balm

Calyx with the upper lip flattened and 3-toothed, the lower 2-cleft. Corolla with a recurved-ascending tube. Stamens 4, curved and conniving under the upper lip. Otherwise nearly as Satureja. — Clusters few-flowered, loose, onesided, with few and mostly ovate bracts resembling the leaves. (Name from Melissa, a bee; the flowers yielding abundance of honey.)

M. officinalis L. (COMMON В.) Upright, branching, perennial, pubescent; leaves broadly ovate, crenate-toothed, lemon-scented ; corolla nearly white. — Sparingly escaped from gardens. (Introd. from Eu.)

A stately member of the mint family, whose straight and tall spikes would not be out of place in a formal perennial garden. This plant was one of a large colony growing in a hillside clearing in Scott Township, where they were blooming in early July.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

TEÙCRIUM [Tourn.] L. Germander

Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla with the 4 upper lobes nearly equal, oblong, turned forward, so that there seems to be no upper lip; the lower lobe much larger. Stamens 4, exserted from the deep cleft between the 2 upper lobes of the corolla; anther-cells confluent. (Named for Teucer, king of Troy.)

* Perennials; leaves merely dentate or serrate; inflorescences terminal, spiciform.

+ Inflorescence cylindric; calyx densely pubescent.

T. canadénse L. (American G., Wood Sage.) Stems 1 m. or less high, appressed-pubescent, simple or branched; leaves lanceolate to ovate, serrate, 2.6-5 cm. broad, rounded or narrowed at base, ehort-petioled, hoary beneath, green and glabrous or sparingly appressed-pubescent but scarcely papillose above; whorls about 6-flowered, crowded in long and simple wand-like racemes; calyx canescent-pannose, the 3 upper lobes very obtuse, or the middle one acutish; corolla 1.6-2 cm. long, purplish, pink, or sometimes cream-color. — Rich low ground, N. E. to Neb., and southw. July-Sept.

The common blue form of this popular groundcover; there is also a much rarer lavender form. This one was blooming in early May at the edge of the woods in Mount Lebanon.

Although Gray says this species is “smooth or but slightly pubescent,” this particular plant looks rather fuzzy up on the flower stalk. The similar Ajuga genevensis is supposed to be a hairier species, but it lacks the creeping stolons characteristic of Ajuga reptans, and this plant was stoloning up a storm. We therefore identify it as a slightly fuzzier-than-average Ajuga reptans.

AJUGA L. BUGLE WEED

Calyx 5-toothed. The large and spreading lower lip of the corolla with the middle lobe emarginate or 2-cleft. Stamens as in Teucrium, but anther- cells less confluent. (From a- privative, and xygon, Latin jugum, yoke, from the seeming absence of a yoke-fellow to the lower lip of the corolla.)

A. reptans L. Perennial, 1-2.5 dm. high, smooth or but slightly pubescent, with copious creeping stolons; leaves obovate or spatulate, sometimes sinuate, the cauline sessile, the floral approximate, subtending several sessile blue flowers. Locally in fields, Me. and Que. to s. N. V. May-July. (Nat. from Eu.)

Also called Bugleweed, a name it shares with Lycopus virginicus. This is a popular groundcover at garden centers, usually in varieties with bronze or variegated leaves. The original green-leaved version is thoroughly naturalized here; it persists in old plantings for decades, but it also pops up on its own, especially at the edge of an open woodland. The flowers are normally blue, but there is an uncommon lavender form, as we see in this stand in Beechview.

AJUGA L. BUGLE WEED
Calyx 5-toothed. The large and spreading lower lip of the corolla with the middle lobe emarginate or 2-cleft. Stamens as in Teucrium, but anther- cells less confluent. (From a- privative, and xygon, Latin jugum, yoke, from the seeming absence of a yoke-fellow to the lower lip of the corolla.)

A. reptans L. Perennial, 1-2.5 dm. high, smooth or but slightly pubescent, with copious creeping stolons; leaves obovate or spatulate, sometimes sinuate, the cauline sessile, the floral approximate, subtending several sessile blue flowers. Locally in fields, Me. and Que. to s. N. V. May-July. (Nat. from Eu.)