Stems erect-ascending, 30-100 cm tall, branched, purple-red, glabrous or angles sparsely minutely hispid. Petiole 1-2 mm, purple; leaf blade lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-3 × 0.8-2 cm, glabrous or abaxially minutely hispid on veins, densely glandular, base rounded to shallow cordate, margin unequally acute serrate, apex acute. Verticillasters in cylindric terminal spikes, interrupted at base; bracts linear-lanceolate, slightly longer than calyx, ciliate. Pedicel ca. 1 mm. Calyx tubular, tinged purple, puberulent or subglabrous, glandular outside; teeth 5, linear-subulate, ca. 1 mm, ciliate. Corolla white, tinged red on lobes, ca. 4 mm, tube nearly as long as calyx; lobes subequal, upper emarginate. Nutlets brown, obovoid, ca. 0.7 mm, apex glandular. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

Cultivated in China. Source of peppermint oil, an essential oil used for flavoring confectionary, candies, liqueur, and chewing gum. The dried plant is used medicinally as a carminative, nervine, and stimulant, while menthol is used in nasal sprays.

A hybrid: Mentha aquatica Linnaeus X M. spicata Linnaeus.

Beijing Shi, Nanjing Shi, and other cities [India, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tukmenistan; SW Asia, Europe, North America]