Mint / Dead-Nettle Family [Lamiaceae] |
status
flower
morph
petals
type
type
stem
smell
applessex
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
Apple Mint is the hybrid between Spear Mint and Round-Leaved Mint. It is a perennial growing to 90cm tall. |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
The flowers are often pinkish with a sweet scent (but it rather depends on exactly which features of either parent are most significant in the specimen found - it can vary quite widely!). The leaves are lanceolate to nearly round. |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
This specimen has 3 paired flowering branches near the summit, with a central flower spike atop. All branches emerging just above a leaf-pair. Some leaf-pairs on this specimen have a pair of much smaller leaves just above them, close to the stem, but at right-angles to the main paired leaves. |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The flower spikes are long on Apple Mint, although Apple mint is extremely variable on account of its hybrids. |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
The stamens protrude well out from the pink corollas. |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
The flowers are sterile on Apple Mint, unable to reproduce by sexual means. |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The single forked stigma also protrudes well beyond the pink corolla. A spent flower above it has become almost transparent. |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers have vacated many of the reddish-purple sepal cups revealing the hairy, long thin sepal teeth on this specimen. But don't forget that Apple Mint can be very variable. |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Most flowers appear to be constricted in one dimension; slightly flattened. The anthers are pink or cream (the photo above this one). |
8th Aug 2010, Apse Barn Farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
The leaves can be either hairy or hairless; here hairy, as is the stem, which is square(ish).
The leaf teeth do not curl over downwards - as they do on Round-Leaved Mint (which is one of its parents). |
3rd Sept 2020, path, Wigan Flashes, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Here the leaves are mostly hairless on this specimen, therefore appear greener. |
Easily confused with : Round-Leaved Mint, but that has leaf teeth which are curved over downwards. Apple Mint is a hybrid mint, denoted by the × symbol. It is a hybrid between Spear Mint and Round-Leaved Mint.
It is very variable in form because of its sterile triploids, which vary in form from one parent to another. Var. alopecuroides is the normal Apple Mint frequently grown in gardens which is close in features to Round-Leaved Mint ( It is a naturalised neophyte which is often grown in gardens and which can naturalise in waste or rough ground. Some similarities to other mints.
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Mentha | × villosa | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Lamiaceae |
Mentha (Mints) |
Mint / Dead-Nettle Family [Lamiaceae] |