Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

41. Lamiaceae, the Mint Family

2. Mentha L. -- Mint

1. Mentha arvensis L. -- Common mint

Erect to decumbent rhizomatous perennial 2-10 dm tall, frequently stoloniferous, strongly mint-scented; stems simple or more often branched and spreading, strigose at least on the angles, villous at the nodes. Leaves short-petioled, the blades ovate to lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 2-6(9) cm long, 0.6-2.5(4) cm wide, glabrous to strigulose on the nerves, strongly punctate, acute to acuminate at the tip, serrate, cuneate to rounded at the base. Flowers small, light pink to lavender, crowded in bracteate, verticillate clusters in middle and upper leaf axils, the bracts linear-subulate to linear-lanceolate; pedicels 1-3 mm long. Calyx regular, 5-toothed, 2-3 mm long, strigulose and glandular; corolla nearly regular to slightly bilabiate, 4-6 mm long, glandular on the outside, 4- or 5-lobed, the upper 2 lobes partly to completely fused; stamens 4, strongly exserted; style exserted. Nutlets obovoid to ellipsoid, 0.7-1 mm long, smooth, enclosed by the persistent calyx. Jul--Sep. Wet meadows, marshes, ditches, stream banks, springs and other wet places; very common; (Circumboreal, in N.Amer. s to VA, MO, n TX, NM and CA).

Mentha arvensis.

Map key

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Menlo Park, CA [caww54]