Clinopodium nepeta (L.) Kuntze
Calamint, Kleinblütige Bergminze (DE), Lesser Calamint, Lesser Calamint (EN)
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Clinopodium nepeta, known as lesser calamint, is a perennial herb of the mint family known for having fragrant, grey-green, oregano-like leaves with a pennyroyal smell. It is also called niepita, and mentuccia romana. This plant commonly grows across the Mediterranean, North Africa and parts of Central Asia and has traditionally been used as a folk medicine and culinary herb. A recent study also found cultivars of lesser catmint that had the same compounds in catnip that cause the euphoric effect in cats, known as nepetalactone.
Text from Wikipedia, “Clinopodium nepeta”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Clinopodium
Clinopodium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, in the subtribe Menthinae. Clinopodium belongs to a large and complex group of genera including many New World mints such as Hedeoma, Monarda, and Pycnanthemum, and this group is in turn a sister clade to Mentha. The genus name Clinopodium is derived from the Latin clinopodion, from the Ancient Greek κλινοπόδιον (klinopódion), from κλίνη (klínē) "bed" and πόδιον (pódion) "little foot". More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Clinopodium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Calamintha hybrida Bouchard, 1995; Calamintha nepeta (L.) Savi; Calamintha nepeta subsp. byzantina (K.Koch) Hayek; Calamintha officinalis subsp. nepeta (L.) P.Fourn.; Calamintha officinalis var. nepeta (L.) Rchb. & Rchb.f. and 14 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, September to January and April to May in the northern hemisphere (September to January and April to May at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (617 mm of 874 mm) falls in September to January and April to May, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.5 °C against a yearly mean of 13.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to November.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 874 mm a year, wettest October at 107 mm, driest July at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
874 mm a year at the habitat, 617 mm of it September to January and April to May. Wettest month October at 107 mm, driest July at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 638 mm to 1313 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 44 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -3.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.7 °C, the absolute minimum -11.2 °C, about 30 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.4 °C to 5.7 °C), warmest day 26.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 9 / 4–12 | 10 / 5–13 | 13 / 9–16 | 16 / 11–18 | 20 / 15–22 | 24 / 19–27 | 27 / 21–30 | 26 / 21–30 | 23 / 18–25 | 18 / 14–20 | 12 / 8–16 | 9 / 4–13 |
| Night °C | 1 / -4–6 | 2 / -4–6 | 4 / -1–8 | 6 / 2–10 | 10 / 6–13 | 14 / 10–17 | 17 / 12–20 | 17 / 12–20 | 14 / 9–17 | 10 / 5–14 | 5 / 0–10 | 3 / -3–7 |
| Rain mm | 75 / 51–116 | 59 / 40–96 | 58 / 41–94 | 79 / 56–119 | 75 / 48–121 | 54 / 25–99 | 35 / 10–78 | 51 / 19–89 | 88 / 49–132 | 107 / 73–162 | 101 / 65–154 | 92 / 58–149 |
| DLI | 12 / 9–15 | 18 / 14–21 | 26 / 22–30 | 34 / 30–37 | 39 / 34–42 | 43 / 37–47 | 44 / 37–47 | 38 / 32–42 | 29 / 24–32 | 19 / 16–23 | 13 / 10–16 | 10 / 7–13 |
| RH % | 61 / 58–66 | 60 / 57–64 | 59 / 56–62 | 58 / 56–61 | 58 / 55–62 | 57 / 53–61 | 56 / 52–61 | 56 / 53–61 | 59 / 56–62 | 61 / 59–64 | 62 / 59–66 | 61 / 58–67 |
Each figure is the median across the 1312 grid cells holding the 1495 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 946:3563 (42.675, -1.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1312 distinct grid cells holding the 1495 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 946:3563 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.50_-1.875, lapse-corrected -105 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 392 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Thomas Dreux, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Gianni Del Bufalo bygdb, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Clinopodium nepeta, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Colchicum longifolium Colchicaceae
Ruscus aculeatus Butcher's-Broom
Cercis siliquastrum Judas Tree
Colchicum lusitanum Portuguese colchicum
Euphorbia characias Albanian spurge
Nigella damascena Damascus helleboreHistory & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 187 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.