Field Mint (Mentha arvensis)
- Family: Mint (Lamiaceae)
- Flowering: July-September.
- Field Marks: This mint is distinguished by its hairy sepals and its small flowers in the axils of the leaves.
- Habitat: Along streams, wet woods, around ponds.
- Habit: Perennial herb with rhizomes.
- Stems: Erect, branched or unbranched, usually with downward-pointing hairs, up to 2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, lanceolate to ovate, rounded or pointed at the tip, rounded or tapering to the base, toothed, hairy, up to 3 inches long.
- Flowers: Borne in clusters in the axils of the leaves, purplish, up to 1/3 inch long.
- Sepals: 4, green, united to form a cup or short tube, hairy, the lobes more or less equal.
- Petals: 4, purplish, united to form a tube.
- Stamens: 4, surpassing the corolla and attached to it.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, 4-parted.
- Fruits: 4 nutlets, longer than the calyx lobes, about 1/10 inch long.
- Notes: The minty leaves can be made into a tea.
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