Red Basil

Calamintha coccinea

Red basil, also called scarlet calamint, is one of four woody mints found in the Calamintha family. If you have been on the Backcountry Trail recently, you might have noticed this shrubby plant. Calaminthas are perennial evergreen wildflowers that have small fragrant leaves and orangish-red tubular flowers. This 2-3 ft. tall shrub blooms in several areas along the trail between June and late October. Sometimes, it blooms in the Spring too. Red basil can be found in extremely well-drained sandy/sunny locations along several locations along the Backcountry Trail.

Red basil is the most widely distributed species in the Calamintha family. Around south Alabama, you can sometimes find this plant for sale in local garden centers. Most people buy red basil for the beautiful bloom and not for, or in spite off, the spindly spaced foliage. Hummingbirds love the blooms and with the sparce foliage of the plant, navigation to blooms is not a big problem for the feeding birds. Due to the deep tubular lengths of the flowers, bees usually don't bother with red basil blooms when there are other flowering plants nearby. In the wild, red basil is short lived...usually only 5 years...but on coastal dunes or snady scrub forest, they can spread fairly rapidly.

The best place to see these very attractive plants is along the Twin Bridges Trail or on the Gulf Oak Ridge Trail. They are very showy this time of the year.