Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Mentha X piperita L.
- Family: Mint (Labiatae)
- Flowering: June-October
- Field Marks: This mint has slender spikes that are more or less interrupted, sepals hairy at
the tip, leaves that are stalked, and smooth stems and leaves.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, along streams.
- Habit: Perennial herb from slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, usually branched, square, to 3 feet tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, oblong to lanceolate, pointed at the tip, more or less rounded at the base, sharply toothed, smooth, up to 4 inches long, on stalks up to 1/4 inch long.
- Flowers: Borne in more or less interrupted, slender spikes up to 4 inches long.
- Sepals: 5, green to purplish, united below into a short tube about 1/6 inch long, the 5 more or less equal lobes hairy at the tip.
- Petals: Fused to form a 2-lipped tube, purplish.
- Stamens: 4, attached to the petals.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, 4-lobed.
- Fruits: Nutlets 4, ovoid.
- Notes: This plant is apparently a hybrid between spearmint (M. spicata) and water mint (M. aquatica). It has been introduced from Europe and is widely planted in herb gardens. Gleason and Cronquist call this family Lamiaceae.
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