Mentha ×piperita L.

Peppermint

Perennial herb mostly hairless and often suffused with reddish purple. Leaves to about 8 cm long, 4 cm wide, hairless or with a few hairs, stalked, margins sawtoothed. Flower cluster terminal in a spike of several flower whorls. Flowers with stamens enclosed. Corolla mostly violet to pink; summer to autumn.

A sterile hybrid, M. aquatica × M. spicata, discovered and named Peppermint in England in the 17th century.

Naturalised in moist sites of Victoria and New South Wales.

Source: Spencer, R.; Holmes, R.; McNaughton, V. (2002). Lavandula. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image

Mentha ×piperita 'Citrata'

Plant, including the runners, reddish purple. Leaves 3-9 cm long, smelling of eau-de- Cologne, hairless, sometimes red-edged. Flowers purplish, in small terminal heads, sterile. [var. citrata (J.F. Ehr.) Briq.]

Naturalised in NSW.

Mentha ×piperita 'Piperita'

Leaves narrowly ovate to elliptic, to 6-7 cm long, pungently peppermint scented.

Naturalised in NSW.

kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Asteranae
order      Lamiales
family       Lamiaceae
genus        Mentha L.