Peppermint generally grows best in moist, shaded locations, and expands by underground rhizomes. Peppermint grown in a pot outside a house Outside of its native range, areas where peppermint was formerly grown for oil often have an abundance of feral plants, and it is considered invasive in Australia, the Galápagos Islands, New Zealand, and the United States in the Great Lakes region, noted since 1843. Being a hybrid, it is usually sterile, producing no seeds and reproducing only vegetatively, spreading by its runners. Peppermint typically occurs in moist habitats, including stream sides and drainage ditches. Peppermint is a fast-growing plant once it sprouts, it spreads very quickly. The chromosome number is variable, with 2n counts of 66, 72, 84, and 120 recorded. Flowering season lasts from mid- to late summer. The flowers are purple, 6–8 mm ( 1⁄ 4– 5⁄ 16 in) long, with a four-lobed corolla about 5 mm ( 3⁄ 16 in) diameter they are produced in whorls (verticillasters) around the stem, forming thick, blunt spikes. The leaves and stems are usually slightly fuzzy. They are dark green with reddish veins, with an acute apex and coarsely toothed margins. The rhizomes are wide-spreading and fleshy, and bear fibrous roots. It is a herbaceous, rhizomatous, perennial plant that grows to be 30–90 cm (12–35 in) tall, with smooth stems, square in cross section. Peppermint was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus from specimens that had been collected in England he treated it as a species, but it is now universally agreed to be a hybrid. Īn 1887 illustration from Köhlers Medicinal Plants haplocalyx are both recognized as plant sources of menthol and menthone, and are among the oldest herbs used for both culinary and medicinal products. While Western peppermint is derived from Mentha × piperita, Chinese peppermint, or bohe, is derived from the fresh leaves of M. Īlthough the genus Mentha comprises more than 25 species, the one in most common use is peppermint. It is occasionally found in the wild with its parent species. Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in many regions of the world. Peppermint ( Mentha × piperita) is a hybrid species of mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. Mentha × schultzii Boutigny ex F.W.Schultz.Mentha × pimentum Nees ex Bluff & Fingerh.
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