I.C. Hedge

Perennial with erect, branched, leafy stems up to 80 cm, ± glabrous or with a sparse eglandular indumentum. Leaves 3-8 x 1.5-4 cm, ovate-elliptic; petioles 10-15 mm. Inflorescence an oblong terminal spike c. 50-70 x 15 mm, with the lower verticillaster distant, approximately above. Calyx 3-4 mm, tubular, ribbed; teeth ± subulate. Corolla lilac. Sterile.

Type: Illustration in Ray. Syn. Meth. Stirp. Brit. t. 10, f. 2. 1724.

No specimens of Peppermint from our area have been seen, but it is recorded as’often planted in gardens’ by R. R. Stewart (l.c.). It is also recorded as a garden escape in Srinagar by Rao (l.c.). An account of its cultivation in Kashmir, and its varied medicinal and economic uses, is given in Wealth of India (l.c.). The globally widely-grown cultivars, with a characteristic smell, are usually glabrous; these forms are often naturalized in different parts of the world, but apparently not in Pakistan.