Mentha arvensis L.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Lamiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Stems ascending or erect, 2–8 dm, pubescent with few to numerous, short and retrorse to longer and more spreading hairs, often glabrous between the angles; lvs short- petiolate, the blade 2–8 cm × 6–40 mm, glabrous or hairy, serrate, acuminate, with several pairs of lateral veins, rather narrowly ovate to more often somewhat rhombic-elliptic, those of the infl, at least, tending to be cuneately tapered to the petiole; verticils compact, axillary to the scarcely reduced (middle and) upper lvs, and separated by internodes of fairly ordinary length; cal pubescent, 2.5–3 mm; cor white to light purple or pink, 4–7 mm, rarely casually 5-lobed; 2n=24–96. Moist places, especially along streams and shores; circumboreal, in Amer. s. to N.C., Mo., and Calif. Native Amer. and e. Asian plants, as here described, are var. canadensis (L.) Kuntze (var. glabrata; var. villosa). The European var. arvensis, with the lvs of the infl relatively broader, more ovate, and somewhat broadly rounded to the petiole, is intr. from Nf. to Que. and Pa., but extremes of one var. could pass for the other.
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Common Names
field mint