Species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae
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Mentha wierzbickiana f. lintiaeHeinr.Braun & Topitz
Mentha wierzbickiana var. richteriBorbás ex Heinr.Braun
Mentha wierzbickiana var. stenanthaBorbás ex Heinr.Braun
Mentha wierzbickiana f. subcrispaHeinr.Braun & Topitz
Mentha wirzbickianaOpiz ex Déségl.
Mentha wondracekiiOpiz ex Strail
Mentha longifolia, also known as horse mint,[1]brookmint,[2]fillymint or St. John's horsemint, is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Europe excluding Britain and Ireland,[3] western and central Asia (east to Nepal and far western China), and northern and southern (but not tropical) Africa.[4][5][6]
Description
It is a very variable herbaceousperennial 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.[6][7][8]
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.[7]
Mentha × rotundifolia (L.) Huds., 1782 (hybrid with Mentha suaveolens) false apple mint
Varieties and Cultivars
Unlike other commonly cultivated species and hybrids of mint, there are few horticultural cultivars of M. longifolia.[10] The only ones of note are:
M. longifolia Buddleia Mint Group (syn. M. longifolia 'Buddleia') - with silvered leaves.[10]
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."[11] In addition, Mentha longifolia, like other Mentha species, is known to have important medicinal properties.[12]
^Grieve, Maud (1971). 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.
