Flora of New Zealand Series

Stems grey-villous. Lvs mostly grey-villous, but upper surfaces of mature lvs merely densely hairy; lamina cuneate or rounded at base. Infl. grey-villous; spikes narrow, usually interrupted in lower part. Corolla hairy outside. Nutlets present.

N.: around Kaiwhata R. mouth (Wairarapa); S.: Kekerengu (Marlborough).

Mediterranean area, Asia Minor 1988

An escape from cultivation on roadsides and river banks.

This mint may have been recorded as M. sylvestris in N.Z. It is the same as the horse mint of the British Isles, where until recently it was usually described under M. longifolia (L.) Hudson. However, this closely related taxon has all its stem and lf hairs simple, whereas in M. spicata subsp. tomentosa there are numerous branched hairs on stems and lf undersurfaces. In addition, the spikes are more compact in M. longifolia and thus not interrupted below as in M. spicata. One sterile specimen (CHR 404151, Bay of Plenty, Kaituna Reserve, Miller, 28.1.1983) is villous but has no branched hairs and thus may belong to the true M. longifolia.