The Hybrid Nature of “Monarda media Willd.”

ABSTRACT
Henry A. Gleason states, of <em>Monarda media</em> (New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada 3: 170), that “it has been suggested that the species has arisen by hybridization of <em>M. didyma</em> and <em>M. fistulosa</em>.” <em>Monarda</em> was originally absent from Aton Forest, a research natural area in northwestern Connecticut. Studies beginning in 1947, involving the introduction of both putative parents and observations on five subsequently appearing volunteer clones each different but of intermediate characteristics, have clearly confirmed the hybrid nature of <em>Monarda</em> media.