ROUND-LEAVED MINT

Mentha suaveolens

Mint / Dead-Nettle Family [Lamiaceae]  

month8Aug month8sep month8sept
status
statusZnative
 
flower
flower8white
 
flower
flower8pink
 
inner
inner8purple
 
morph
morph8zygo
 
petals
petalsZ4
 
type
typeZclustered
 
type
typeZspiked
stem
stem8square
 
smell
smell8apple
apple
rarity
rarityZscarce
 

2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The leaves are round(ish...) either slightly less wide of circular ('suborbicular') or oblong-ovate and grows to 1m high.


2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The leaves are hairy and either without stalks or the stalks are very short.


2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The leaves are strongly rugose (they have many bumps on the upper surface). From above the leaves only appear to be crenate (have rounded teeth), but this is an illusion - the teeth are there but bent downwards like cats claws! No other Mint plant has teeth bent downwards (apart from hybrids between this and one or two other species (or their varieties) of Mint (Mentha) plants.

The whorls of inflorescence on Round-headed Mint are often multiply branched, as here.



2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The 'spikes' of flowers between 5 to 15mm across and are actually in compact whorls with (mostly obscured) bracts between the whorls.


2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The flowers themselves are either white (as here) or pale pink (especially when the petals are still folded over each other when the flower has not yet opened). Many flowers here have vacated their green sepal tubes, which are now empty.


2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The flowers have 4 petals which in a slightly zygomorphic configuration with 5 long filaments protruding tipped by a red to purple anther. The calyx (green here) has 5 (either equal or with some slightly longer) teeth and is just 1 to 2mm long.


2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The style is exerted out beyond the petals (but shorter than the stamens) is white and split in two near the end as the stigmas.


2nd Aug 2010, Knighton, IoW. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The stems are hairy too. Branches quite frequent at leaf junctions, the branches having smaller opposite leaves - sometimes triple - as here (there's a tiny pair of leaves branching off at the centre of the smaller pair)




ROUND-LEAVED MINT (?)

(or one of its hybrids, such as that with Spear Mint (Mentha spicata)
- maybe with Mentha spicata var. alopecuoides
or less likely with Mentha spicata var. vilos)

18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
This is a rather large colony of these mints, which are quite tall, but not over 1m, so still within the specification for Round-leaved Mint.


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Held aloft above the madding crowd. Just like the real Round-leaved Mint the teeth are curled-over downwards (see leaf at bottom right).


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Leaf teeth curled underneath leaf here too. Some leaves perhaps a little more pointed than those from the Isle of Wight.


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The flowers too are more pink than the almost white flowers from the specimen from the Isle of Wight.


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The long thin purple bracts sticking out between the flowers are longer than those of the specimen from the Isle of Wight.


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The flowers with the long-toothed sepal teeth mingling with the much longer occasional bract. Here the terminal leaf tooth is very long and makes no attempt whatsoever to curl underneath!


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Stem leaves, with teeth curled underneath.


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The stem leaves have very short (or no) stalks and often have a smaller leaf-pair at right-angles, and here a third one which is even smaller (indeed, tiny!) at right-angles to that. Leaves still bullate (with raised 'blisters' as per spec for Round-leaved Mint). Stem hairy.


18th July 2017, dunes north of Hall Road, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Hairy underside of the oval leaves, hairs denser on the prominent veins.


Easily confused with : Apple Mint

Some similarities to other mints.


  Mentha suaveolens  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Lamiaceae  

Distribution
family8mint family8Dead-Nettle family8Labiatea family8Lamiaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8mentha
Mentha
(Mints)

ROUND-LEAVED MINT

Mentha suaveolens

Mint / Dead-Nettle Family [Lamiaceae]  

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