Search Field Guide
Advanced Search
MT Gov Logo
Montana Field Guide

Montana Field Guides

Spearmint - Mentha spicata
Other Names:  Garden Mint

Image Copyright and Usage Information
Non-native Species

Global Rank: GNR
State Rank: SNA
C-value: 1


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links

 
General Description
Stems erect, 30–100 cm, often branched above. Herbage glabrous except hirsute on leaf veins. Leaves sessile or subsessile, 2–7 cm long. Inflorescence terminal spikes 3–12 cm long, of verticillasters in axils of reduced bracts. Flowers: calyx 1–3 mm long, the lobes ciliate, the tube glabrous; corolla 2–4 mm long, pale lavender. Roadsides, fields, ditches; valleys (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Range Comments
Introduced for cultivation and escaped throughout North America; native to Europe; collected in Missoula County (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 13

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat

Ecology
POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus vagans, Bombus appositus, Bombus bifarius, Bombus centralis, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus huntii, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus ternarius, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens, and Bombus insularis (Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Williams et al. 2014).

Management

References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
    • Thorp, R.W., D.S. Horning, and L.L. Dunning. 1983. Bumble bees and cuckoo bumble bees of California (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 23:1-79.
    • Williams, P., R. Thorp, L. Richardson, and S. Colla. 2014. Bumble Bees of North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 208 p.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
    Do you know of a citation we're missing?
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
    • Wheeler, D.L., J. Scott, J.K.S. Dung, D.A. Johnson. 2019. Evidence of a trans-kingdom plant disease complex between a fungus and plant-parasitic nematodes. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211508. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211508
  • Web Search Engines for Articles on "Spearmint"
Login Logout

Take us with you! PDF icon

Look for this PDF icon as you search and browse.  Click it to build a custom PDF with species shown on that page or for all the species within that taxonomic level.  To create your own list of species, use the PDF Creator tool at the bottom of the Advanced Search page.

Here's some links if you want to download a whole group.

Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fish
Invertebrates
Butterflies / Moths
Dragonflies / Damselflies
Ferns and allies
Conifers
Flowering Plants (Dicots)
Flowering Plants (Monocots)
Bryophytes
Lichens
Ecological Systems
Noxious Weeds
Citation for data on this website:
Spearmint — Mentha spicata.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from