Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Mentha pulegium
Common name
Pennyroyal
Family
Lamiaceae
Where found
Widespread. Woodland, grassy areas, moist places, stream banks, and swamps.
Notes
Introduced perennial herb to about 0.5 m high, usually rooting at the nodes, sometimes rhizomatous, often sprawling. Stems 4-angled, more or less densely covered with simple hairs. Leaves smelling strongly like spearmint when rubbed, opposite each other, 0.6–3 cm long, 4–20 mm wide, variably hairy, margins entire or with small blunt teeth, tips blunt or rounded. Flowers usually pale-mauve to lilac, 4–6 mm long, tubular, vaguely 2-lipped, with 4 lobes, each 1.5–2 mm long. Flowers in dense many-flowered clusters at the base of paired leaves. Flowering: mostly January–April
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Mentha~pulegium (accessed 24 January, 2021)
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