The owner sent a flower head to Dr. Arthur O. Tucker Dept. of Agriculture & Natural Resources 1200 N. Dupont Highway Delaware State University And this is the reply Wow! Your flower is really a mystery! In all characters except flowers it matches with a species allied to Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot). However, the calyx consists of five, irregular, wavy sepals rather than a lobed tube. Corollas were not present on the dried specimen, but the photos seem to show tiny actinomorphic (radially symmetric) flowers, not the zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetric) flowers typical of the Lamiaceae (mint family). There are recorded instances of zygomorphic flowers becoming actinomorphic in the Lamiales by loss-of-function mutations in genes such as CYCLOIDEA, and I assume this is what happened here. I could not find any seeds; all ovules were aborted. Typically these sorts of mutations are not stable. If it persists into the next flowering season, then this is eminently patentable.
Interestingly, our director here at the garden does research on CYCLOIDEA genes and floral development. If it does come up next year, do let me know and I'll bring it to his attention.
