Spotted Bee Balm, Monarda punctata,  is a native wildflower found throughout the east coast in dry soil, and is a beneficial plant to native bees and other insects, including migrating Monarch butterflies.  On Dewees Island, they may be on secondary dunes, or recently recolonized areas like the berm or rice trunk areas.

It’s an upright bushy plant in the mint family, with a hairy-ish four-sided stem, with flowers around the stem, and pale leaf brachts around the flower whorl.  The spots in the name are on the corolla of the flower.

In Porcher’s Wildflowers of South Carolina, he mentions that earlier botanists had written of medicinal uses; and at Wildflower.org, they say that crushed leaves can be steeped in cold water for easing backacke, fever, and chills.  (We are interested in the history of people and plants, NOT making a medicinal prescription.)

Here’s an Article by Billy McCord in the Island Eye news about the accreted dunes on Sullivan’s Island.

A guide to propagation can be found here: http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_mopu.pdf

And there’s more information at Wildflower.org.  http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MOPU