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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Mentha xrotundifolia

Citation: Hudson, Fl. Angl. 221 (1762).

Synonymy: M. spicata L. var. rotundifolia L., Sp. Pl. 576 (1753).

Common name: Apple mint, round-leaved mint.

Description:
Perennial herbs with a rhizome above or under ground, usually rooting at the nodes, producing ascending quadrangular stems to 60 cm high, usually much-branched, more or less densely covered with long simple and branched hairs as well as sessile glands; leaves sessile, ovate to almost orbicular, or oblongovate, 1.5-3 x 1-3 cm, obtuse or rounded, cordate, serrate or crenate, with 5-7 pairs of secondary veins, hairy to densely hairy on the undersurface with more or less sessile glands.

Inflorescence a thyrse without a distinct peduncle and often branched below, with sessile cymose part-inflorescences with many pedicelled flowers in dense clusters each subtended by narrow bracts unlike the leaves; sepals unequally connate to half their length, 10-veined, 1.5-2 mm long, with pointed but broader posterior lobes, with short spreading hairs and scattered sessile glands on the outside, glabrous inside; corolla pink to pale-lilac, vaguely 2-lipped, with a posterior lip more or less 2-lobed, with the anterior lip with 3 subequal lobes, with few hairs and sessile glands on the outside, glabrous inside; stamens inserted just below the throat of the corolla tube, with filaments glabrous; anthers 2-celled, included to somewhat exserted; ovary on a thick disc, 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base, with a shortly 2-fid stigma.

Mericarps oblong-ovate, c. 1.5 mm long, not keeled, with the attachment scar almost truncate with 2 concavities on either side of the lowest point, finely pitted.

Published illustration: Ross-Craig (1967) Drawings Brit. Pl. 24:pl. 1.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Jan. — March.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: This species is a fertile hybrid between M. longifolia (L.)Hudson and M. suaveolens Ehrh. and is in Europe a very variable taxon but it seems that only one clone was brought to S.Aust.

Author: Not yet available


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