Mentha aquatica

Water mint (Mentha aquatica ), habit, leaves and inflorescence

The water mint (Mentha aquatica ), also called Bach mint, is a flowering plant in the mint family ( Lamiaceae). It occurs in wide areas of Europe.

• 5.1 Hybrid

• 6.1 Notes and references

Description

Appearance and foliage leaf

The water mint grows as a perennial herbaceous plant, the plant height usually 20 to 50 (10 to 100) achieved centimeters. On land, underground and in water and overground stolons formed. The upright and usually branched stem is square.

The constantly against the stem arranged leaves are long-petiolate. The simple leaf blade is ovate elliptic, somewhat coarse and often glossy, with serrated leaf edge. There are four to six pairs bogiger Fiedernerven available. In particular, the leaves smell when crushed peppermint.

Inflorescence, flower and fruit

The flowers are borne in standing, loosely stacked Scheinquirlen and in a spherical terminal, capitate inflorescence dense part in the axils of the upper leaves.

The flowers are zygomorphic and fünfzählig double perianth. The five only slightly unequal sepals are partially fused with 13 Roehrig nerves and five lanceolate calyx teeth. The five bright purple, pink, white petals are different fleischigrosafarbenen to severely overgrown and only weakly bilabiate. The upper lip is usually as large as one of the three lobes of the lower lip. Thereby, the flower seems almost regularly vierspaltig. Of the four straight, fertile stamens two are slightly longer.

The Klaus fruits fall into four top part warty fruit.

Ecology

The water mint is a Hemikryptophyt ( plant stem ) or a marsh plant and a spur - Kriechpionier. The leaves contain plenty of essential oils.

The flowers are inconspicuous " Small funnel flowers". The nectar is secreted at the base of the flower of a large nectar gland and protected by long hairs inside the corolla ( "juice ceiling "). The plant is usually dioecious incomplete ( gynodiözisch ), that is, next to hermaphroditic plants there are female with smaller flowers ( as in as in all species of mint ). The flowers are fragrant and are therefore intensively visited by various insects, such as bees, hoverflies and many other species.

The spread of the seeds via the water ( Hydrochorie ).

Vegetative reproduction occurs, as with all mint species by aboveground and underground runners.

Occurrence

Water Mint is found in large parts of Europe. Furthermore, it is in Cyprus, distributed in Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, and Africa, and Macaronesia.

The water mint thrives with us often in reed and sedge companies, to banks and ditches in wet and bog meadows, swamp forests and willow bushes. Preferably, it grows into something acidic, muddy ground. After Ellenberg she is a half-light plant, a default heat pointer, a wet hand, a weak acid to weak base pointer, growing on moderately nitrogen-rich sites and a Verbandscharakterart the Still Water reed beds in freshwater ( Phragmition australis).

History as a medicinal plant

The water mint counted in addition to the rights meadowsweet ( Filipendula ulmaria ) and verbena (Verbena officinalis) to the sacred herbs of the Druids. In Middle Ages and early modern times nor the water mint was used among other things to the " stitch ". Emerged in the 16th century, the botanical name Menta aquatica on at Eucharius Rößlin.

System

The first publication of Mentha aquatica was in 1753 by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, 2, pp. 576 Mentha aquatica L. are synonyms for among many other Mentha acuta Opiz, Mentha acutata Opiz, Mentha acuta Strail, Mentha hirsuta Huds. , Mentha palustris Mill, Mentha dumetorum var natalensis Briq. , Mentha braunii Oborný, Mentha capitata Opiz, Mentha ortmanniana Opiz, Mentha riparia Schreb. , Mentha aquatica subsp. caput- medusae Trautm. & Urum. , Mentha aquatica subsp. ortmanniana ( Opiz ) Lemke.

There are of Mentha aquatica at least two subspecies:

• Mentha aquatica L. subsp. aquatica
• Mentha aquatica subsp. litoralis Hartm. ( Syn. Mentha litoralis ( Hartm. ) Neuman )

Hybrid

From the crossing of water mint (Mentha aquatica ) and spearmint (Mentha spicata ) was produced in 1696 in a physic garden in England, the hybrids Peppermint ( Mentha × piperita ), which has a more pleasant aroma and taste than their parents.

The Quirlminze (Mentha × verticillata ) is a cross between the wild mint (Mentha arvensis) and water mint. It lies in all characters between their two parents, is often something stronger and can displace this then.

Swell

• Johann Christoph Röhling, Franz Carl Mertens & Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch: Germany's Flora, Volume 4, Wilmans, 1833 Google -Books -Online:. . Mentha aquatica on page 552
• Water mint. In: FloraWeb.de.