Water mint - Definition

Water mint
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Genus: Mentha Species: aquatica
Binomial name
Mentha aquatica

Water mint is a perennial plant in the mentha genus common throughout Europe, except for the extreme North.

It grows about 90cm tall, although it may reach heights of 150cm when supported by taller vegetation and has a distinctly minty smell. It has ovate to ovate-lanceolate, green (sometimes purplish), opposite, toothed, veined leaves which can be either hairy or hairless. The stems are often purple. Flowers are tiny, densely crowded, purple, tubular, pinkish to lilac in colour and bloom from July to September. Water mint is pollinated by insects, but can easily be propagated through root cuttings, like other species of mint.

As the name suggests, water mint occurs in the shallow margins and channels of streams, rivers, pools, dykes, 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 acid to calcareous (it is common on soft limestone) mineral or peaty soils.