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Horse Mint / Metvica / Nana

Mentha longifolia

Photo by injica
Published on Project Noah
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45.0695, 13.6436

Field Notes

Description:

It is a very variable herbaceous perennial plant with a peppermint-scented aroma. Like many mints, it has a creeping rhizome, with erect to creeping stems 40 - 120 cm tall. The leaves are oblong-elliptical to lanceolate, 5 - 10 cm long and 1.5 - 3 cm broad, thinly to densely tomentose, green to greyish-green above and white below. The flowers are 3 - 5 mm long, lilac, purplish, or white, produced in dense clusters (verticillasters) on tall, branched, tapering spikes; flowering in mid to late summer. It spreads via rhizomes to form clonal colonies.

Habitat:

It is native to Europe, western and central Asia (east to Nepal and the far west of China), and northern and southern (but not tropical) Africa.

Notes:

Mentha longifolia and its extracts have been used for centuries as a food flavoring and a medicine. It has a very strong peppermint flavor which is sometimes confused with other members of the mint family.

Species ID Suggestions

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