Spearmint

Spearmint, also known as garden mint, common mint, lamb mint and mackerel mint, is a species of mint, Mentha spicata (ˈmɛnθə_spaɪˈkeɪtə, native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, extending from Ireland in the west to southern China in the east. It is naturalized in many other temperate parts of the world, including northern and southern Africa, North America, and South America. It is used as a flavouring in food and herbal teas. The aromatic oil, called oil of spearmint, is also used as a flavoring and sometimes as a scent. The species and its subspecies have many synonyms, including Mentha crispa, Mentha crispata, and Mentha viridis. Spearmint is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is tall, with variably hairless to hairy stems and foliage, and a wide-spreading fleshy underground rhizome from which it grows. The leaves are long and broad, with a serrated margin. The stem is square-shaped, a defining characteristic of the mint family of herbs. Spearmint produces flowers in slender spikes, each flower pink or white in colour, long and broad. Spearmint flowers in the summer (from July to September in the northern hemisphere), and has relatively large seeds, which measure . The name ''spear'' mint derives from the pointed leaf tips. Mentha spicata varies considerably in leaf blade dimensions, the prominence of leaf veins, and pubescence. Mentha spicata was first described scientifically by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The epithet spicata means 'bearing a spike'. The species has two accepted subspecies, each of which has acquired a large number of synonyms: Mentha spicata subsp. condensata (Briq.) Greuter & Burdet – eastern Mediterranean, from Italy to Egypt Mentha spicata subsp. spicata – distribution as for the species as a whole The plant is a allopolyploid species (2n = 48), which could be a result of hybridization and chromosome doubling. Mentha longifolia and Mentha suaveolens (2n = 24) are likely to be the contributing diploid species.