Pennyroyal
Scientific name: Mentha pulegium L.
Diagnostic features
Plant (often sparsely) pubescent, with pungent scent, resembling a small Mentha arvensis, perhaps sometimes annual.
Stems erect to procumbent, to 30cm.
Leaves elliptic, with few very small teeth to subentire, obtuse to rounded at apex, tapered to petiole.
Whorls in leaf-axils.
Calyx tubular to narrowly bell-shaped, 2-3mm.
Corolla lilac.
Chromosome number: 2n=20.
Habitat
Native; damp grassy or heathy places and by ponds.
Distribution
Very local, often near sea, in South England, South Wales, Man, Jersey and Ireland, formerly much more widespread North to Central Scotland, sometimes naturalized elsewhere and now increasing as a grass-seed contaminant.
This species is keyed out on Page 3109 in the Text Key. |
