Mentha longifolia
Mentha longifolia
Ssp longifolia: Pünk; Ssp typhoides: Dere nanesi
Variable, hairy perennial with musty or pungent odour. Rhizomes mainly hypogeal with squamiform leaves. Flowering stems 40-120 cm. Leaves 30-90 x 10-32 mm, sessile or rarely petiolate, oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, broadest at or above middle, apex ± acute, base cordate to sub-cordate, margin sharply serrate with many irregular and often spreading teeth. Lamina smooth or very weakly rugose, green- to grey-tomentose above, green-to white-tomentose beneath , sometimes minutely puberulous on both surfaces. Leaf hairs unbranched, finely matted beneath when dry, basal cell 18-36 μm diam. Verticillasters many, congested, forming a terminal often much branched spike 40-100 x 9-15 mm diam. Calyx 1-3 mm. Corolla lilac or white. Nutlets chestnut, reticulate.
1. Leaves distinctly petiolate subsp. noeana
1. Leaves sessile or almost so
2. Leaves more than 50 mm x 18 mm, discolorous with thin-walled hairs beneath, collapsing when dry; spikes robust, 12 mm diam. with usually sessile or subsessile branches subsp. longifolia
2. Leaves usually less than 50 mm x 20 mm, concolorous with long to very short and curved, thick-walled hairs beneath, scarcely collapsing when dry; spikes more slender, to 10 mm diam., branches pedunculate subsp. typhoides
3. Leaves green, densely puberulous on both surfaces, with short hairs, sometimes appearing almost glabrous; undersurface with sessile glands, visible with a lens; flower spikes tinged reddish-purple var. calliantha
3. Leaves grey-tomentose; glands on undersurface obscured by hairs; flowers not conspicuously reddish-purple var. typhoides
1. Leaves distinctly petiolate subsp. noeana
1. Leaves sessile or almost so
2. Leaves more than 50 mm x 18 mm, discolorous with thin-walled hairs beneath, collapsing when dry; spikes robust, 12 mm diam. with usually sessile or subsessile branches subsp. longifolia
2. Leaves usually less than 50 mm x 20 mm, concolorous with long to very short and curved, thick-walled hairs beneath, scarcely collapsing when dry; spikes more slender, to 10 mm diam., branches pedunculate subsp. typhoides
3. Leaves green, densely puberulous on both surfaces, with short hairs, sometimes appearing almost glabrous; undersurface with sessile glands, visible with a lens; flower spikes tinged reddish-purple var. calliantha
3. Leaves grey-tomentose; glands on undersurface obscured by hairs; flowers not conspicuously reddish-purple var. typhoides
