''Mentha aquatica'' (water mint; syn. ''Mentha hirsuta'' Huds.Euro+Med Plantbase Project
''Mentha aquatica''
) is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

. It grows in moist places and is native to much of Europe, northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and southwest

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

.Flora of NW Europe
''Mentha aquatica''

Description

Water mint is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

rhizomatous perennial plant growing to tall. The stems are square in cross section, green or purple, and variably hairy to almost hairless. The

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s are wide-spreading, fleshy, and bear fibrous

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

s. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, long and broad, green (sometimes purplish), opposite, toothed, and vary from hairy to nearly hairless. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s of the watermint are tiny, densely crowded, purple, tubular, pinkish to lilac in colour and form a terminal hemispherical inflorescence; flowering is from mid to late summer. Water mint is visited by many types of insects, and can be characterized by a generalized

pollination syndrome Pollination syndromes are suites of flower traits that have evolved in response to natural selection imposed by different pollen vectors, which can be abiotic (wind and water) or biotic, such as birds, bees, flies, and so forth through a process c ...

, but can also spread by underground rhizomes. All parts of the plant have a distinctly minty smell.Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). ''Flora of Britain and Northern Europe''. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan . Unbranched, hairless plants, with narrower leaves and paler flowers, native to areas of Sweden and Finland near the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, have been called ''Mentha aquatica'' var. ''litoralis''. ''Mentha aquatica'' is a

polyploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...

, with 2''n'' = 8''x'' = 96

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

Taxonomy

''Mentha aquatica'' was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1753. As with other ''Mentha'' species, it was subsequently re-described under a variety of different names; , Plants of the World Online listed 87 synonyms, including four forms or varieties that it does not recognize. The cultivated eau de Cologne mint (also known as bergamot mint) is considered to be a variety of this species. It Hybrid (biology), hybridises with ''Mentha spicata'' (spearmint) to produce Peppermint, ''Mentha'' × ''piperita'' (peppermint), a sterile hybrid; with ''Mentha suaveolens'' (apple mint) to produce ''Mentha'' × ''suavis''; with ''Mentha arvensis'' (corn mint) to produce ''Mentha'' × ''verticillata''; and with both ''M. arvensis'' and ''M. spicata'' to give the tri-species hybrid ''Mentha'' × ''smithiana''.

Distribution and habitat

Water mint is native to much of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced to North and South America, Australia and some Atlantic islands. As the name suggests, water mint occurs in the shallow margins and channels of streams, rivers, pools, dikes, ditches, canals, wet meadows, marshes and fens. If the plant grows in the water itself, it rises above the surface of the water. It generally occurs on mildly acidic to calcareous (it is common on soft limestone) mineral or peaty soils. ''M. aquatica'' can occur in certain fen-meadow habitats such as the Juncus subnodulosus–Cirsium palustre fen-meadow, ''Juncus subnodulosus–Cirsium palustre'' plant association. It is a component of Purple moor grass and rush pastures – a type of Biodiversity ActPlan habitat in the UK.

Uses

It can be used to make a herbal tea. The cultivated variety known as eau de Cologne mint or bergamot mint, is used to produce mentha citrata oil, also known as bergamot mint oil, used in perfumery. Not to be confused with Bergamot essential oil.

Image gallery

File:Mentha aquatica (2005 09 18) - uitsnede.jpg, corolla mauve, leaves opposite File:Mentha aquatica bluete.jpeg File:Mentha aquatica01.jpg File:Mentha aquatica 01.jpg File:Mentha aquatica 148819609.jpg

References