Mentha longifolia explained

Mentha longifolia, also known as horse mint, brookmint,[1] fillymint or St. John's horsemint, is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Europe excluding Britain and Ireland,[2] western and central Asia (east to Nepal and far western China), and northern and southern (but not tropical) Africa.[3] [4] [5]

Description

It is a very variable herbaceous perennial plant with a peppermint-scented aroma. Like many mints, it has a creeping rhizome, with erect to creeping stems 40–120 cm tall. The leaves are oblong-elliptical to lanceolate, 5–10 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad, thinly to densely tomentose, green to greyish-green above and white below. The flowers are 3–5 mm long, lilac, purplish, or white, produced in dense clusters (verticillasters) on tall, branched, tapering spikes; flowering in mid to late summer. It spreads via rhizomes to form clonal colonies.[5] [6] [7]

Taxonomy

Mentha longifolia has been widely confused with tomentose variant plants of the species Mentha spicata; it can be distinguished from these by the hairs being simple and unbranched, in contrast to the branched hairs of M. spicata.[6]

Infraspecies

The following subspecies and varieties are recognised:[8]

Hybrids

Mentha longifolia hybridizes with other Mentha species. Hybrids include:

Varieties and Cultivars

Unlike other commonly cultivated species and hybrids of mint, there are few horticultural cultivars of M. longifolia.[9] The only ones of note are:

Cultivation

Like almost all mints, Mentha longifolia can be invasive. Care needs to be taken when planting it in non-controlled areas.

Uses

Nicholas Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1653) states that "It is good for wind and colic in the stomach ... The juice, laid on warm, helps the King's evil or kernels in the throat ... The decoction or distilled water helps a stinking breath, proceeding from corruption of the teeth, and snuffed up the nose, purges the head. It helps the scurf or dandruff of the head used with vinegar."[10] In addition, Mentha longifolia, like other Mentha species, is known to have important medicinal properties.[11]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: PlantFiles: Mentha Species, Brook Mint, Horsemint . Dave's Garden . 2 August 2023 . en.
  2. Web site: The IUCN Red List of threatened species: Mentha longifolia (Horse Mint). 25 April 2013 . International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources . 24 August 2018.
  3. Euro+Med Plantbase Project: Mentha longifolia
  4. African Flowering Plants Database: Mentha longifolia
  5. Flora of China: Mentha longifolia
  6. Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). Flora of Britain and Northern Europe.
  7. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan .
  8. Web site: Mentha longifolia (L.) L. Plants of the World Online Kew Science . 2023-11-14 . Plants of the World Online . en.
  9. [Royal Horticultural Society]
  10. Book: A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses, Volume 2. Grieve, Maud. 1971.
  11. Sevindik. Mustafa. Determination of therapeutic potential of Mentha longifolia ssp. longifolia. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin. 26. 7. 4757–4763.

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