''Mentha aquatica'' (water mint; syn. ''Mentha hirsuta'' Huds.Euro+Med Plantbase Project
''Mentha aquatica''
) is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

family Lamiaceae. It grows in moist places and is native to much of Europe, northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and southwest

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

.Flora of NW Europe
''Mentha aquatica''

Description

Water mint is a herbaceous rhizomatous perennial plant growing to tall. The stems are square in cross section, green or purple, and variably hairy to almost hairless. The rhizomes are wide-spreading, fleshy, and bear fibrous

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...

s. The leaves are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, long and broad, green (sometimes purplish), opposite, toothed, and vary from hairy to nearly hairless. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s of the watermint are tiny, densely crowded, purple, tubular, pinkish to lilac in colour and form a terminal hemispherical inflorescence; flowering is from mid to late summer. Water mint is visited by many types of insects, and can be characterized by a generalized

pollination syndrome Pollination syndromes are suites of flower traits that have evolved in response to natural selection imposed by different pollen vectors, which can be abiotic (wind and water) or biotic, such as birds, bees, flies, and so forth through a process c ...

, but can also spread by underground rhizomes. All parts of the plant have a distinctly minty smell.Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). ''Flora of Britain and Northern Europe''. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan . Unbranched, hairless plants, with narrower leaves and paler flowers, native to areas of Sweden and Finland near the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, have been called ''Mentha aquatica'' var. ''litoralis''. ''Mentha aquatica'' is a

polyploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...

, with 2''n'' = 8''x'' = 96

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

Taxonomy

''Mentha aquatica'' was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in 1753. As with other ''Mentha'' species, it was subsequently re-described under a variety of different names; , Plants of the World Online listed 87 synonyms, including four forms or varieties that it does not recognize. The cultivated

eau de Cologne mint Eau de Cologne mint, also known as orange mint and bergamot mint, is a cultivated mint. In a 1970 study, most plants were found to be male sterile forms of ''Mentha aquatica'', so were regarded as ''Mentha aquatica'' var. ''citrata'', although in ...

(also known as bergamot mint) is considered to be a variety of this species. It hybridises with ''

Mentha spicata Spearmint, also known as garden mint, common mint, lamb mint and mackerel mint, is a species of mint, ''Mentha spicata'' (, native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, extending from Ireland in the west to southern China in the east. It is nat ...

'' (spearmint) to produce ''Mentha'' × ''piperita'' (peppermint), a sterile hybrid; with ''

Mentha suaveolens ''Mentha suaveolens'', the apple mint, pineapple mint, woolly mint or round-leafed mint (synonyms ''M. rotundifolia'', ''Mentha macrostachya'', ''Mentha insularis''), is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae. It is native to southern and weste ...

'' (apple mint) to produce ''Mentha'' × ''suavis''; with ''

Mentha arvensis ''Mentha arvensis'', the corn mint, field mint, or wild mint, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It has a circumboreal distribution, being native to the temperate regions of Europe and western and central Asia, east to ...

'' (corn mint) to produce ''Mentha'' × ''verticillata''; and with both ''M. arvensis'' and ''M. spicata'' to give the tri-species hybrid ''Mentha'' × ''smithiana''.

Distribution and habitat

Water mint is native to much of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced to North and South America, Australia and some Atlantic islands. As the name suggests, water mint occurs in the shallow margins and channels of streams, rivers, pools, dikes, ditches, canals, wet meadows, marshes and fens. If the plant grows in the water itself, it rises above the surface of the water. It generally occurs on mildly acidic to

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

(it is common on soft

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

) mineral or

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

y soils. ''M. aquatica'' can occur in certain

fen-meadow A fen-meadow is a type of peatland, common in North America and Europe, that receives water from precipitation and groundwater. Habitat The continuous flow of mineral-rich and nutrient-poor acidic groundwater through fen-meadow topsoil fosters ...

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s such as the ''Juncus subnodulosus–Cirsium palustre''

plant association A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...

. It is a component of

Purple moor grass and rush pastures Purple moor grass and rush pastures is a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe. It is found in the South West of England, especially in Devon ...

– a type of Biodiversity ActPlan habitat in the UK.

Uses

It can be used to make a herbal tea. The cultivated variety known as eau de Cologne mint or bergamot mint, is used to produce mentha citrata oil, also known as bergamot mint oil, used in perfumery. Not to be confused with

Bergamot essential oil Bergamot essential oil is a cold-pressed essential oil produced by cells inside the rind of a bergamot orange fruit. It is a common flavoring and top note in perfumes. The scent of bergamot essential oil is similar to a sweet light orange peel oi ...

Image gallery

File:Mentha aquatica (2005 09 18) - uitsnede.jpg, corolla mauve, leaves opposite File:Mentha aquatica bluete.jpeg File:Mentha aquatica01.jpg File:Mentha aquatica 01.jpg File:Mentha aquatica 148819609.jpg

References