Blephilia ciliata

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Blephilia ciliata
Blephilia ciliata.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Blephilia
Species: B. ciliata
Binomial name
Blephilia ciliata
(L.) Benth.

Blephilia ciliata is an herbaceous perennial of the mint family Lamiaceae native to eastern North America. It is commonly called downy wood mint. Other common names include downy pagoda plant, sunny woodmint and Ohio horsemint.[1]

Carl Linnaeus described the downy wood mint as Monarda ciliata, before George Bentham gave it its current binomial name.[2]

Blephilia ciliata grows as a perennial herb reaching 40 to 80 cm (16-32 in) high.[3]

It was traditionally used by the Cherokee to make a poultice to treat headaches. [4]


  1. ^ Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (19 February 2009). "Blephilia ciliata (Downy Pagoda Plant)". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 11 December 2011. 
  2. ^ Bentham, George (1836). Labiatarum genera et species: or, A description of the genera and species of plants of the order labiatae; with their general history, characters, affinities, and geographical distribution. London: James Ridgway and Sons. p. 319. 
  3. ^ Miller, James Howard; Miller, Karl V. (2005). Forest plants of the Southeast and their wildlife uses. University of Georgia Press. p. 22. ISBN 0-8203-2748-4. 