Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Mentha × rotundifolia; photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-03-22

Mentha × rotundifolia (L.) Huds.

False apple mint; Bigleaf mint

Lamiaceae · Belgium, France +7

A hybrid: M. longifolia × M. suaveolens, the parents Kew's World Checklist states for it (WCVP, RBG Kew).

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph (c) Jan Prokeš, some rights reserved (CC BY)Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph (c) Jan Prokeš, some rights reserved (CC BY)Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph (c) ikelman, some rights reserved (CC BY)Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph (c) ikelman, some rights reserved (CC BY)Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph (c) ikelman, some rights reserved (CC BY) 49 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-8.0°C
Record low -18.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
855mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
6–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Mentha longifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0; its title is one of this species' older names (GBIF Backbone), which is the proof that the article is this species'.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Mentha", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (604 mm of 859 mm) takes 8 months, August to January and May to June. Mean temperature moves 15.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to July and November to December.

Rain

859 mm in the median year at the habitat, 604 mm of it August to January and May to June. Wettest month December at 84 mm, driest month February at 60 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 645 mm to 1,239 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 855 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 859 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -8.0 °C, the absolute minimum -18.5 °C, 2,594 frost nights in 44 years, 59.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -1.4 °C to 2.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.8 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -59 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Mentha × rotundifolia through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 0.6 °C; 859 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost28.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-18.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 6–36RH 59–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 726 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 5–107 / 6–1211 / 9–1514 / 12–1718 / 16–2020 / 19–2523 / 21–2923 / 21–2819 / 18–2415 / 14–1910 / 8–147 / 5–11
Night °C1 / -1–31 / -1–33 / 1–55 / 3–79 / 7–1112 / 10–1414 / 13–1714 / 13–1711 / 10–148 / 7–114 / 3–72 / 0–4
Rain mm74 / 55–12060 / 46–9766 / 49–9861 / 48–11972 / 56–11573 / 32–9068 / 15–8371 / 24–8669 / 48–10482 / 68–13479 / 61–14184 / 64–140
DLI7 / 5–1512 / 10–2120 / 17–3029 / 27–3734 / 32–4236 / 33–4636 / 32–4732 / 28–4124 / 19–3215 / 12–238 / 6–166 / 4–13
RH %67 / 60–6964 / 59–6662 / 56–6460 / 56–6260 / 55–6260 / 54–6259 / 52–6260 / 54–6262 / 56–6464 / 59–6667 / 60–6968 / 61–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 726 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (861 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 786:3681 (50.675, 4.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 726 distinct grid cells holding 861 of the 863 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 786:3681 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 50.50_4.375, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 69 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBelgium, France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Altay, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey · introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Canary Is., Madeira, Gulf of Guinea Is., Illinois, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Bermuda, Trinidad-Tobago, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile South, Uruguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker50.836, 5.043 · in the densest population, 352 records (35% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 993 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 861 of them in the land cells it reads, of 863 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 759 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 653 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 130 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 993 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Mentha × rotundifolia, photograph 1did not loadMentha × rotundifolia, photograph 2did not loadMentha × rotundifolia, photograph 3did not loadMentha × rotundifolia, photograph 4did not loadMentha × rotundifolia, photograph 5did not loadMentha × rotundifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jan Prokeš, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) ikelman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Geranium macrorrhizum Geranium macrorrhizum Rock crane's-bill Photo: CC BY, portioidBromus secalinus Bromus secalinus Rye brome Photo: CC BY, ivansemenkovCentaurea thuillieri Centaurea thuillieri Meadow Knapweed Photo: CC BY, Norma MalinowskiDigitaria ischaemum Digitaria ischaemum Smooth finger grass Photo: CC0, author not statedAnthemis cotula Anthemis cotula Stinking chamomile Photo: CC BY, Илья РуденкоIberis amara Iberis amara Wild candytuft Photo: CC BY, Sean Hartnett

Other Mentha 20 in the reference

Mentha aquatica Mentha aquatica Water mint Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeMentha arvensis Mentha arvensis Corn mint Photo: CC BY, Константин СеливёрстовMentha australis Mentha australis Australian mint Photo: CC BY, Jenny O'ConnellMentha canadensis Mentha canadensis American corn mint Photo: CC BY, elik03Mentha cervina Mentha cervina Water Spearmint Photo: CC BY, Aubin NORMANDMentha cunninghamii Mentha cunninghamii Hioi Photo: CC BY, Sean TMentha × dalmatica Mentha × dalmatica Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleksandr ShynderMentha gattefossei Mentha gattefossei Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, André Karwath aka AkaMentha × gracilis Mentha × gracilis Gingermint Photo: CC0, author not statedMentha longifolia Mentha longifolia Horse Mint Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrea MologniMentha × piperita Mentha × piperita Peppermint Photo: CC BY-SA, Geotourist FreiburgMentha pulegium Mentha pulegium Pennyroyal Photo: CC0, author not stated all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Mentha nouletiana var. gallica; Mentha spicata var. rotundifolia; Mentha sylvestris var. niliaca; Mentha viridis var. cana; Mentha xrotundifolia. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Mentha longifolia x suaveolens and Mentha longifolia × suaveolens is an older name of this species, not Mentha longifolia, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(L.) Huds.
Native to
Belgium, France, Spain +6
Wild records
993 in range · 759 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 39 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (28 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 10 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 50.50_4.375, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Mentha rotundifolia to Mentha longifolia, an older name of this species (Mentha longifolia)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 174 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…