Species
+

Mentha longifolia (L.) L.

Biblical mint, Horse Mint, silver mint, wild mint

Climate known 50 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Mentha longifolia, also known as horse mint, brookmint, fillymint or St. John's horsemint, is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Europe excluding Britain and Ireland, western and central Asia, and northern and southern Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Mentha longifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Mentha

Mentha, also known as mint, is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is estimated that 18 to 24 species exist, but the exact distinction between species is unclear. Hybridization occurs naturally where some species' ranges overlap. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Mentha”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(L.) L.
Native to
Sweden, Austria, Belgium +71
Wild records
683 in range· 231 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1099mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1099 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 67 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -13.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Mentha caerulescens Opiz ex Déségl.; Mentha candicans Crantz, 1769; Mentha longifolia (L.) Huds.; Mentha longifolia var. cooperi Briquet; Mentha longifolia var. cooperi Briquet ex Cooke and 14 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (794 mm of 1099 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 18.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

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 1099 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 67 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1099 mm a year at the habitat, 794 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 108 mm, driest February at 67 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 620 mm to 1790 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: 7 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 35 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 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 -13.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -13.2 °C, the absolute minimum -26.9 °C, about 116 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -11.2 °C to 0.8 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.2 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 65% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 3 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 13 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1099 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 574 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -26.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-26.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 7–35RH 59–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 574 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C3 / -3–64 / -1–88 / 2–1212 / 7–1617 / 12–2020 / 15–2322 / 17–2622 / 17–2518 / 14–2114 / 9–177 / 2–113 / -2–7
Night °C-5 / -11–1-4 / -10–1-1 / -7–33 / -3–67 / 2–1011 / 5–1313 / 7–1613 / 7–159 / 5–125 / 1–80 / -6–5-3 / -10–2
Rain mm79 / 35–12767 / 33–11482 / 41–13377 / 42–134106 / 49–171108 / 56–196107 / 42–214108 / 39–20898 / 49–16290 / 42–14288 / 50–13789 / 46–142
DLI9 / 5–1514 / 10–2222 / 17–3130 / 27–3634 / 32–3935 / 33–4135 / 32–4230 / 27–3723 / 19–3116 / 12–229 / 6–167 / 4–13
RH %63 / 57–6862 / 58–6561 / 57–6359 / 56–6260 / 55–6260 / 56–6360 / 55–6361 / 56–6463 / 58–6563 / 59–6665 / 58–6864 / 58–69

Each figure is the median across the 574 grid cells holding the 675 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 852:3925 (47.375, 16.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -26.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °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 574 distinct grid cells holding the 675 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 852:3925 (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 47.50_16.250, lapse-corrected +5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 473 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Altay, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China South-Central, Tibet, Xinjiang, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya· introduced: Madeira, Guinea, Sakhalin, Oman, Illinois, New York, Vermont, Maryland
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker47.589, 12.203 · in the densest population, 242 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 683 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 231 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 353 km away. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 683 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mentha longifoliaMentha longifoliaMentha longifoliaMentha longifoliaMentha longifoliaMentha longifoliaMentha longifoliaMentha longifolia

Photographs: (c) Andrea Mologni, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Denis Otkydach, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Mentha longifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the essential oils and methanol extract from Mentha longifolia L. ssp. longifolia
Medine Güllüce, Fatih Şahin, Münevver Sökmen, Hakan Özer (2006) · Food Chemistry
Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of ThreeMenthaSpecies Essential Oils
Neda Mimica–Dukić, Biljana Božin, Marina Sokóvić, Biserka Mihajlović (2003) · Planta Medica
Comparative study of rosmarinic acid content in some plants of Labiatae family
Homa Hajimehdipoor, Soodabeh Saeidnia, AhmadReza Gohari, MortezaPirali Hamedani (2012) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Mentha ( longifolia L. and viridis ) Essential Oils
Mounira Mkaddem, Jalloul Bouajila, Monia Ennajar, Ahmed Lebrihi (2009) · Journal of Food Science
Biological activities of the essential oils and methanol extract of tow cultivated mint species (Mentha longifolia and Mentha pulegium) used in the Tunisian folkloric medicine
Hafedh Hajlaoui, Najla Trabelsi, Emira Noumi, Mejdi Snoussi (2009) · World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
Effects of drying methods on the quality and quantity of the essential oil of Mentha longifolia L. subsp. Capensis
Olayinka T. Asekun, Donald Grierson, Anthony Jide Afolayan (2006) · Food Chemistry
Isolation and identification of antimicrobial compound from Mentha longifolia L. leaves grown wild in Iraq
Firas A. Al-Bayati (2009) · Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials
DETERMINATION OF THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF MENTHA LONGIFOLIA SSP LONGIFOLIA
Мustafa Sevindik, Hasan Akgül, Mustafa Pehlivan, Zeliha Selamoğlu (2017)
Effect of ethnomedicinal plants used in folklore medicine in Jordan as antibiotic resistant inhibitors on Escherichia coli
Rula M. Darwish, Talal Aburjaı (2010) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Pharmacological and therapeutic effects of Mentha Longifolia L. and its main constituent, menthol
Milad Moloudizargari, Peyman Mikaili, Sina Mojaverrostami, Shahin Aghajanshakeri (2013) · Ancient Science of Life

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.

Other Mentha 5 in the reference

History & 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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons 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)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.