Spotted Beebalm

The Spotted Beebalm is an unusual beauty in form and colour, distinguished by its pagoda-like blossoms. It has eye-catching clusters of creamy purple-spotted tubular blooms sitting on pink, lavender, or ivory bracts. Flowering starts in mid-summer and continues into the fall. Spotted Beebalm, a member of the mint family, has a sweet and pleasant scent. Its rich green fragrant foliage can be used to flavour teas.

The Spotted Beebalm brings a large number of pollinators to the garden. It is a key perennial for attracting the Karner Blue butterfly, which is one of Ontario’s endangered species. The Raspberry Pyrausta moth is also a host plant for Spotted Beebalm. Bumblebees, miner bees, and plasterer bees are also drawn to the blooms. Some moth caterpillars eat on flowers, leaves, or stems. This plant’s fragrance is repulsive to mammalian herbivores, hence it is rarely ingested by them.