Mentha ×piperita var. citrata (Ehrh.) Briq.
bergamot mint
Lvs on flowering shoots broad-ovate or sometimes broadly oblong-ovate, lemon-scented when bruised; infl. subglobose or at least head-like, sometimes interrupted with lowest verticels discrete.
N.; S.: scattered localities throughout, commonest north of the Volcanic Plateau.
Europe 1846
Around rivers, streams, drains and lakes, particularly in still or slow-moving water.
Plants of bergamot mint are often submerged or partly so. Bergamot mint is more like M. aquatica than var. piperita, but lacks the hairy pedicels and calyx of this parent, as well as the exserted stamens. M. aquatica has been recorded for N.Z., but no specimens have been seen; records were probably based on plants of bergamot mint. One collection (WELT 61706, Bay of Islands, Kirk, Apr. 1868) has narrower and hairier lvs than typical bergamot mint and a hairy calyx tube. It is often known as M. citrata and also as eau de Cologne mint.
