About
Contact
Links
Electronic Flora of South Australia
Electronic Flora of South Australia
Census of SA Plants, Algae & Fungi
Identification tools
 

Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Mentha xpiperita

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 576 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Perennial herbs with a rhizome above or under ground and frequently rooting at the nodes, producing erect quadrangular stems to 80 cm high, often tinged purple, more or less branched, glabrous or with few scattered simple hairs; leaves with the petiole 0-15 mm long; blade ovate, lanceolate, rarely elliptic-lanceolate, 1.5-8 x 1-3 cm, acute, rarely obtuse, serrate to dentate, with 5-8 pairs of secondary veins, glabrous or with few scattered hairs and with sessile glands on the undersurface.

Inflorescence a thyrse without a distinct peduncle and often branched below, with sessile cymose part-inflorescences with many pedicelled flowers in dense clusters each subtended by narrow bracts unlike the leaves; sepals regularly connate to two-thirds of their length, 10-veined, 3-4 mm long, with pointed lobes, with scattered hairs mainly along a central ridge and often ciliate and with sessile glands on the outside, glabrous inside; corolla lilac to pink, vaguely 2-lipped, with a posterior lip more or less 2-lobed to emarginate with an anterior lip with 3 subequal lobes, with few hairs and sessile glands on the outside, glabrous inside; stamens inserted just below the throat of the corolla tube, with filaments glabrous; anthers 2-celled, included or exserted; ovary on a thick disk, 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base, with a shortly 2-fid stigma.

No fruit developed.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: No flowering time is available


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: M. xpiperita is a hybrid between the Old World species M. aquatica L. and M. spicata L. and all plants are sterile. As the one parent (M. aquatica) has not been recorded naturalised in S.Aust. and is rarely cultivated, spontaneous hybridisation seems unlikely and all the material of M. xpiperita found naturalised spreads vegetatively by means of its rhizome. It is therefore necessary to note that two varieties of hybrid origin within this species can be distinguished.

Key to Infraspecific taxa:
1. Link to hybrid species
subsp. xcitrata 1.
1. Link to hybrid species
subsp. xpiperita 2.

Author: Not yet available


Disclaimer Copyright Disclaimer Copyright Email Contact:
State Herbarium of South Australia
Government of South Australia Government of South Australia Government of South Australia Department for Environment and Water