Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Mentha spicata
Common name
Spearmint
Family
Lamiaceae
Where found
Moist sites. Sydney area, tablelands, and Canberra. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced perennial herb to 1 m high, rhizomatous, often rooting at the lower nodes. Stems 4-angled, hairless or with scattered hairs, often tinged purple. Leaves smelling strongly like spearmint when rubbed, opposite each other, 2–9 cm long, 10–35 mm wide, hairless or with scattered hairs, veins on the upper surface sometimes reticulate and strongly impressed, tips blunt; bases cordate; margins toothed or scalloped. Flowers white, pink or lilac, 3–4 mm long, tubular, 2-lipped, with 4 lobes, each 1–2 mm long. Flowers in dense many-flowered spike-like clusters 2–6 cm long. Flowers mostly Dec.–Apr.
Was Mentha x spicata.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Mentha~spicata (accessed 27 April 2021)
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