General: Perennial herb from a creeping rhizome; stems erect, branched, 30-100 cm tall, glabrous, 4-angled; pungent (spearmint) smell.
Leaves: Opposite, egg-shaped to lanceolate, 2-7 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, toothed, tips pointed, bases rounded, glabrous but often hairy along the main veins beneath, margins toothed; unstalked or nearly so, stalks less than 3 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence of flower clusters crowded into terminal spikes 3-12 cm long and 0.5-1 cm wide (sometimes interrupted below) subtended by linear-lanceolate bracts; corollas tubular, 2-4 mm long, pale lavender to sometimes white, glabrous, 4-lobed, the lobes nearly equal; calyces 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous but often glandular, teeth margins usually stiff-hairy.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
Moist to wet disturbed areas, ditches and meadows in the lowland and montane zones; scattered throughout BC, more common southward; introduced from Europe.
Synonyms and Alternate Names: Mentha cordifolia auct. Mentha longifolia var. mollissima (Borkh.) Rouy Mentha longifolia var. undulata (Willd.) Fiori Mentha spicata var. longifolia L. Mentha spicata var. spicata L. [superfluous autonym] Mentha sylvestris L. Mentha viridis L.