Monarda Fistulosa
Wildcrafting a Simple Cough Syrup
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
One of my all time favorites, this herb goes by many different names — bee balm, wild oregano, oregano de la sierra, wild bergamot, oswego tea, and purple wizard head! It’s scientific name is monarda fistulosa. It generally blooms mid-July to mid-September (the later at higher elevations) with these wild purple puffs at the end of the stem. The leaves are opposite and on square stems, similar to others in the mint family. However, there is a strong oregano-like scent from the leaves and flower.
Monarda grows throughout most of North America and is found often in moist canyons and forest clearings. I often find her growing in Aspen groves or in areas where the land suddenly opens up, as well as on the margins of the woods.
This is an important food source for long tongued bees, butterflies, skippers, hummingbird moths and hummingbirds who sip nectar from the flowers. Caterpillars of several moth species also feed on the foliage. And for us humans, it is an amazing plant to use in cooking to spice up any dish that you would use oregano in (I’m particularly fond of using the leaves on pizza). It is of course highly medicinal too and just one of my close friends, you could say.
Her Story
Monarda is native to North America and has been an important source of medicine for many of the Indigenous Peoples of this land, such as the Lakota, the Dakota, the Omaha, the Pawnee, the Osage, the Cheyenne, the Blackfeet, the Meskwaki, and the Crows, among others. The Pawnee have four different names for monarda, including tsakus tawirat which roughly translates to “shot many times still fighting”. Clearly, this is a highly medicinal plant!
Many tribes, including the Lakota and the Meskwaki, use the plant as a cure for the common cold, making a tea from the flowers as a remedy for fevers and other symptoms. Another tea is made from the leaves for whooping cough. The Lakota also make a poultice (chew up the leaves to release the oils) that is placed on wounds to slow bleeding. Additionally, the Dakota use a tea from both the leaves and flowers to relieve abdominal pain. The Blackfeet make an eye wash from the flowers using warm water. They also chew the roots when swollen neck glands are present. And the Muskogee consider monarda to be a love medicine as elk will roll in patches of it to attract a mate.
Medicine
Monarda is highly antibacterial and anti fungal. It’s warming and stimulating, antiseptic and carminative. Most often used as a tea, tincture or made into a syrup, here are some of the ways it can be useful medicinally.
Diaphoretic — Stimulates sweating and can help break a fever when taken hot as a tea. It’s antibacterial properties help fight the infection.
Antiseptic and Anesthetic — This makes monarda helpful to soothe a sore throat. You can use as a gargle, cough syrup or slowly sipped tea for relief. It is also helpful in treating cuts and bruises. This is due to the high thymol content in the flower. You can also use the poultice or a wash of the tea applied externally to sooth stings, bites, sunburn, poison ivy, and other skin infections.
Antibacterial and Antifungal — Drinking the tea will act against the infection and give relief from the common cold as well as many respiratory infections. It is also remarkably effective to inhale the steam through an open mouth to help with lung infections.
Anti-Catarrh — Helps clear excessive mucus build-up in the mouth, nose and throat.
Hemostatic — Applying chewed up leaves to an open wound will slow or even stop the bleeding. It’s also very effective to apply a tincture to the wound. This is a great backcountry medicine trick to have in your back pocket!
Carminative — Helpful in relieving gas and other digestive distress like bloating and slow digestion.
My favorite way to take this herb is to make a medicinal honey from it. I generally head out this time of year to gather the flower heads in their prime and cover with honey. I let that infuse for several weeks. I always save back a handful of flowers that I dry as well to have on hand to use in tea.
A Note On Wildcrafting:
It is a beautiful offering to wildcraft herbs and plants. When we do this in a good way we are helping the plant to live out their life purpose, giving us their fruits to feed, nourish and sustain us. This being said, when you head out to harvest there are a couple of things that are good to be aware of.
Always ask permission from the plant to harvest and make an offering. Some people offer tobacco, some a strand of hair. I say, offer whatever it is that is sacred to you. Maybe a song, a prayer, or something you’ve made. It is a way to acknowledge the generosity of the plant and give a little something in gratitude for all that we receive from them.
Only take what you need and have a plan for. Know that what you harvest is food that other animals like the mule deer, squirrels and rabbits will not get. Harvest in gratitude for what you need, and leave what you don’t.
Always leave enough for the plant to reproduce for the coming year. A good rule of thumb is to never take the first, never take the last, only take what is given, and never take more than half.
Heading out for Harvest
When you decide to head out for harvest, it is a good idea to have all of your ducks in a row. I like to bring a ball jar and enough honey to cover to the site so that I can start the infusion right away when the flowers are still full of their potent medicine. When you find a stand of monarda, you’ll want to harvest only the flowers that are fully open and not yet beginning to be past their prime. They should look full, vibrant purple, with supple tubular petals and have a strong fragrance.
To me this is a playful herb, full of love and a surprising strength. I love her. Harvest with joy and gratitude, and have fun!
Making Monarda Cough Syrup
As soon as possible after harvesting the flower heads, place them into a mason jar.
Pour over with honey until all the flowers are completely covered. Cover the jar and let infuse for 3-4 weeks. During that time, I like to occasionally turn the jar over and shake it up since the flowers have a tendency to rise to the top.
After a few weeks, when the honey is infused with the medicine, you can filter out the flower heads using a fine mesh filter. It is helpful to have the honey be slightly warmed to do this (not hot or you will kill the medicinal properties inherent in the honey itself). I find it helpful to have the jar sit in the sun before I filter.
The medicinal honey will keep for at least a year, if not longer. This is now an excellent cough syrup just as is. It’s also fantastic to add to your favorite herbal tea during cold season.
Voila! A simple sweet syrup for those sicky days.