Water Mint, Mentha aquatica

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Water Mint, Mentha aquatica

Water Mint, Mentha aquatica, on Beeston Common, Norfolk (August 2019).

One of my favourite smells is Water Mint, Mentha aquatica. The plant has a clear, pure minty freshness that soothes and clears the nose at the same time. I can’t resist touching Water Mint leaves when I walk past, but earlier in the season the scent can come as a pleasant surprise, when you tread on it in short, damp turf near a stream and unwittingly bruise its stems and leaves (note 1).

Last Thursday we made a brief visit to Beeston Common near Sheringham in North Norfolk. The wetter areas are a mass of flowers at the moment, and stands of Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris), Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) , Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) were attracting lots of insects, including butterflies, hoverflies and solitary bees. The dense stands of Water Mint were especially spectacular, with the plants growing over 30 centimetres (one foot) tall, topped by dense heads of small lilac-pink flowers with one or two further whorls of flowers beneath.

Water Mint is in flower somewhere in the UK from July to October, but the peak of flowering will depend on the year’s weather and where the plant is growing: late August to mid September is usually best here in Norfolk. To help you recognise the plant, there are great photos of Water Mint on the Wild Flower Finder, Nature Gate, Nature Spot and First Nature websites.

The plant’s scientific name, Mentha aquatica, literally means “Water Mint” (note 2). It is a hardy perennial plant (note 3) which spreads by rhizomes, which sometimes break off to create new plants. It grows in wet places such as marshes, fens, ditches, ponds and the edges of rivers, in dune-slacks and wet woods. Water Mint is a British native and is very widely distributed, so in most of the British Isles you won’t need to travel far to find your nearest patch. Mine is only yards away from there I am writing this, in a pond in the back garden.

Like other mints and many culinary herbs (such as Sage, Marjoram, Thyme and Hyssop) Water Mint is a member of the Lamiaceae, a family of plants with a cosmopolitan distribution and around 7,000 species in over 230 genera. The genus Mentha is distributed across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and North America and there are between 13 and 24 species, plus many hybrids (note 4).

As well as the British Isles, Water Mint is native to much of Europe and parts of north-west Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced (deliberately) to North and South America, Australia and some Atlantic islands. 

Mints are useful plants and the Plants For A Future website gives a number of uses for Water Mint. The leaves are edible raw or cooked but are very pungent, so a little goes a long way. They can be used, sparingly, in salads or cooked dishes, though “the leaves are too pungent for most people to use as a flavouring“.

One of the best uses of Water Mint is to make a mint tea from the leaves. Mint tea is very refreshing and a pleasant caffeine-free drink. The tea also has a number of possible medicinal properties and it has traditionally been used in the treatment of fevers, headaches, digestive disorders and various minor ailments. On his blog, Paul Kirtley suggests using Water Mint to calm digestive disorders, flatulence and nausea and he found that eating some eased his stomach cramps after a bout of food poisoning.

The Gardening Know How website suggests using Water Mint externally as a balm for sore muscles or to help clean wounds. Water Mint contain menthol, which has known antibacterial properties and triggers cooling receptors when applied to the skin.

Other volatile compounds in Water Mint include menthone, carvone, limonene, linalool, menthyl acetate, piperitone, and pulegone (note 5). Some of these, including pulegone (also found in Catmint) and menthol are toxic in large quantities but eating a bit of Water Mint now and then is not going to cause you any harm.

The Plants For a Future website has includes a warning: “Although no records of toxicity have been seen for this species, large quantities of some members of this genus, especially when taken in the form of the extracted essential oil, can cause abortions so some caution is advised”. The warning applies particularly to Pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium (note 6). Pennyroyal oil contains very high levels of pulegone (80% to 92%), whereas Water Mint oil has much lower levels (around 15%, note 5).

Water Mint was sometimes strewn on floors to give a scent of mint and it can be used to scent a room in potpourri, in aromatherapy or added to herb pillows or used fresh or dried in herbal baths. The cut foliage is said repel mice and flies as well.

Water Mint is abundant enough to pick from the wild but also very easy to grow in the garden in damp soil or in a pond, though it spreads fast and it usually needs to be kept in control. I let mine grow in the open water of the pond and remove clumps of it from time to time to prevent it from taking over. It can be grown from seed but the easiest option is to find someone near you who already grows it and ask for some. If you have some Water Mint growing wild near where you live, you can cut a few stems and place them in a vase of water and they will root within a few weeks (note 7).

My own favourite use of Water Mint is in Watermint Sorbet. The recipe comes from John Wright’s book “Hedgerow” (River Cottage Handbook No. 7, Bloomsbury, 2010). For the original recipe, you’ll need to buy the book (and I suggest that you do, as it is very good) but the Noémie’s kitchen website gives a slightly modified version (called Lemon and watermint sorbet). I tend to use slightly less sugar than in the recipes. The result is a lemon sorbet with a refreshingly minty tang and often a slight pink colour.

I find the flavour of the Water Mint varies as summer progresses. Herbs, including Water Mint, have the best flavour when they are gathered just before flowering, but for the sorbet I quite like the added complexity of flavour once the plant has started to flower.

Notes

Note 1 – Unfortunately the limits of the internet prevent me from sharing the smell of Water Mint with you, so you will need to go and find your own patch to sniff.

People have tried to combine smells with pictures several times, not via the internet but by releasing smells (such as tobacco smoke) into cinemas at appropriate points during a film. This has been tried several times, but never very successfully, under the names “Smell-O-Vision”, “Smellorama”, “Scentovision” and “AromaRama”. I recommend Wikipedia’s “Smell-O-Vision” page if you want to know more. I don’t think Water Mint’s smell has ever been used in this way, which is a pity.

Note 2 – The genus Mentha is named after the naiad Minthe (also spelt Menthe, Mintha or Mentha) in Greek mythology. Minthe fancied the Greek god Hades and tried to seduce him but Persephone (daughter of Zeus and queen of the underworld) transformed her into a sweet-smelling mint plant. (Allegedly.)

Note 3 – The Gardening Know How website says it is hardy in USDA zones 8 to 11. In Finland, Water Mint is only native in the milder Åland Islands but it has escaped from cultivation elsewhere.

Note 4 – Water Mint is one of the parents of Peppermint (Mentha x piperita). This is a a hybrid mint formed by a natural cross between Mentha aquatica and Spearmint (Mentha spicata). Peppermint is grown as a commercial crop and the world production of peppermint in 2014 was 92,296 tonnes, largely in Morocco (92% of the total). Peppermint leaves are used to make herb teas and the plant’s essential oil is used to flavour confectionery and toothpaste.

Note 5 – For details of the compounds found in Water Mint in Tunisia, see Wissal Dhifi , Mariem Litaiem , Nahida Jelali , Naceur Hamdi and Wissem Mnif (2011) –  Identification of A New Chemotype of the Plant Mentha aquatica Grown in Tunisia: Chemical Composition, Antioxidant and Biological activities of its Essential Oil, Jeobp 14 (3) pp 320 – 328.

Note 6 – Pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium, is a low and spreading type of mint with pretty flowers and a very intense scent, which is sometimes grown as a garden herb. It was formerly used as a medicinal herb. Two of its main uses were as a contraceptive and to trigger abortions, but its use is very risky and large or concentrated doses of Pennyroyal have caused the deaths of several pregnant women over the years.

Note 7 – It is illegal to uproot wild flowers without the landowner’s permission (under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 in Britain and the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order, 1985, in Northern Ireland.) See the Wild Flower Society’s Code of Conduct for the conservation and enjoyment of wild plants.

Sharp-leaved Fluellen, Kickxia elatine

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Sharp-leaved Fluellen, Kickxia elatine

In 2014 James Emerson told me about a Sharp-leaved Fluellen (Kickxia elatine) plant growing on the edge of a field by a footpath in South Norfolk, so I cycled out on a baking hot July day and found it – eventually. It was a tiny plant with an even tinier flower and I had walked past it twice, mistaking it for a tiny specimen of Lesser Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis). Last week I saw several Sharp-leaved Fluellen plants in Norwich, thriving on a pile of dumped clay soil, and it was immediately obvious what they were (and weren’t).

Like the Weasel’s-Snout (Misopates orontium) that grows on my allotment, Sharp-leaved Fluellen (Kickxia elatine) is an annual archeophyte in the family Plantaginaceae (the Plantain family) (note 1).

Sharp-leaved Fluellen usually grows on the margins and headlands of arable fields and on tracks, waste ground and in gardens. (It needs soil disturbance to grow, as do many other arable “weeds”, such as Common Poppy, Corn Marigolds, Corncockle and Cornflowers.)

Sharp-leaved Fluellen is usually found on basic (alkaline) soils, such as light soils over chalk and calcareous boulder-clay (as in that South Norfolk field) but will also grow in sandy or peaty soils on occasion. In the British Isles, the plant is mainly confined to southern England, Welsh coasts and south-east Ireland. It also occurs in many parts of continental Europe and parts of Asia, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Turkey. It has been introduced to Australia, the United States and Canada.

Kickxia elatine has a low-growing, spreading growth habit. As mentioned above, my initial impression was of a tiny, prostrate Lesser Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) because the leaves were rather similar in shape, arrow-shaped and sharply-pointed. But closer examination reveals distinct differences between the plants: Sharp-leaved Fluellen is covered in sticky hairs; Lesser Bindweed leaves have less obvious, felty hairs. When the plants are in flower there is absolutely no possibility of confusion, as Lesser Bindweed flowers are trumpet shaped and various shades of pink or white, whereas Sharp-leaved Fluellen flowers are like a tiny Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus), yellowish to bluish with a violet-purple upper lip, borne singly on long stalks from the base of the leaves. There are some great photographs of Kickxia elatine on the Wild Flower Finder, UK Wildflowers and Nature Spot websites.

The genus Kickxia is named after Jean Kickx (1775–1831), a Belgian botanist and mineralogist. (Now that proper nouns are allowed in Scrabble, the word could be a useful way of using up a ‘K’ and an ‘X’ in the same turn.)

As well as Sharp-leaved Fluellen, Kickxia elatine is sometimes known as Sharpleaf Cancerwort. This implies that the plant may have been used to treat cancer, but I have been unable to find more information on this (note 2). The Plants For A Future website mentions that the plant can be used externally to staunch wounds and bleeding (haemostatis) but gives no other properties. The phytochemistry of some related species has been investigated, including Kickxia ramosissima (note 3) and Kickxia spuria (note 4), and revealed antimicrobial compounds.

Kickxia spuria is Round-leaved Fluellen, another annual of disturbed soil that grows in similar habitats to Sharp-leaved Fluellen. Unlike Kickxia elatine it has noticeably rounded hairy leaves and its pedicels (flower stalks) and corolla (flower petals) are hairless. It is a plant I have yet to see.

Notes

Note 1 – When I studied Botany, Weasel’s-Snout, Antirrhinum and Sharp-leaved Fluellen were considered to be part of the Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family), but nowadays they are in the same family as Ribwort (Plantago lanceolata) and other plantains.

Note 2 – If you have more information on this, please let me know.

Note 3 – See Amin, Cos, Maes, Apers, Exarchou and Pieters (2015) and Amin, Tuenter, Foubert, Iqbal, Cos, Maes, Exarchou, Apers and Pieters (2017). Kickxia ramosissima (now reclassified as Nanorrhinum ramosissimum) is used as a medicinal plant in Pakistan to treat diabetic and inflammatory conditions. The authors isolated compounds with antimicrobial properties from the plant.

Note 4 – See Morteza-Semnani , Saeedi and Akbarzadeh (2008).

Lady’s Bedstraw, Galium verum

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Lady's Bedstraw, Galium verum

Lady’s Bedstraw, Galium verum (presumably the shorter coastal subspecies Galium verum ssp. maritimum) at Holkham NNR, North Norfolk.

Lady’s Bedstraw, Galium verum, is in flower at the moment and it seems to be doing especially well this year, perhaps as a response to last year’s hot and dry summer.

Galium verum is a perennial, stoloniferous member of the Bedstraw family, Rubiaceae (note 1). It has small, narrow leaves that grow in whorls on its angular stems and frothy heads of tiny, yellow flowers in dense clusters. It is closely related to Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum), which I wrote about back in March 2013. Like Sweet Woodruff, Lady’s Bedstraw smells of new-mown hay when in flower. I think Lady’s Bedstraw smells even more delectable, as it flowers in open ground the hottest summer days in July and August, when the scent is more noticeable. (Sweet Woodruff flowers in woods and hedgerows from late April to June.)

I have happy early memories of Lady’s Bedstraw. I lived in Worcestershire as a young child and we sometimes visited Witley Court, a ruined country house with extensive grounds. It was a glorious, unkempt, romantic ruin, following a fire in 1937. I remember the shell of the house and, outside, a meadow of summer flowers surrounding the silent, dry fountains. The flowers included masses of Lady’s Bedstraw, looking and smelling lovely (note 2).

The Online Atlas of the British Irish Flora gives a map and list of habitats where Lady’s Bedstraw grows: hay meadows, pastures, chalk and limestone downland, rock outcrops, quarries, coastal cliff-tops, dune grasslands and machair, roadsides and railway embankments, from sea level to 780 metres (about 2500 feet) above sea level. Subspecies maritimum grows on clifftops and sand dunes.

Outside the British Isles, Galium verum grows in mainland Europe, and parts of North Africa and Asia (note 3). In many parts of its range it is threatened by the decline of traditional farming and, in southern Finland, by hybridisation with Hedge Bedstraw (Galium album) to produce the hybrid Galium x pomeranicum.

Lady’s Bedstraw is a good wildlife plant. I’ve never seen bees on the flowers but it is a foodplant for the larvae of several species of moths (Northumberland Moths lists fifteen species). We grow Lady’s Bedstraw in our back garden, in our mini meadow, and on Wednesday a Humming-bird Hawkmoth visited and laid spherical green eggs on it. We’ll keep a look out for caterpillars later in the summer.

Galium verum is useful as well as beautiful, and the Plants For A Future website gives more details of its uses.

The English name Lady’s Bedstraw comes from the plant’s use in stuffing straw mattresses, especially in beds of women about to give birth. The plant was also used as a strewing herb, because of its lovely smell.

The leaves are edible, raw or cooked, though I haven’t tried them (note 4).

Lady’s Bedstraw also has a long history of use as a herbal medicine, including as a diuretic, in treating skin complaints and healing wounds. The plant could be gathered when in flower and dried for future use. More recently, research has been carried out on its antioxidant properties and its effect on cancer cells.

The plant can also be used to produce dyes: red from the roots and yellow from the stems, leaves and flowers. The Wild Flower Finder website gives details of the chemicals involved: the anthraquinoid dyes alizarin, purpurin, xanthopurpurin and pseudopurpurin (note 5).

The genus name Galium comes from the Greek noun gala, meaning milk. (The specific name verum means true.) Historically, Lady’s Bedstraw was used in cheese making to coagulate milk, as a vegetarian substitute for rennet. It also dyed the cheese yellow (note 6). In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey says that the technique has been lost and that research at Reading Agricultural College failed to reproduce it. More recently, others have had a try and Monica Wilde gives some recipes for plant “rennets”, including Lady’s Bedstraw, Nettle and Sorrel. Her recipe using Lady’s Bedstraw produces a cheese with the consistency of Marscapone, rather than Cheddar.

Lady’s Bedstraw is easy to identify, but if you’d like to see more pictures of the plant I recommend (as usual) the excellent Wild Flower Finder, First Nature and (Finnish) NatureGate websites.

I can recommend growing Lady’s Bedstraw in a wild flower meadow, in a sunny place. (It could grow too rampant in a flower bed.) The plant does well on calcareous soils, but also on the neutral but sandy soil in our back garden and on our allotment. One of our plants came in a pot from Natural Surroundings and the others grew (more slowly) from seed in a meadow mix from Emorsgate Seeds, who also sell the seeds separately. In their fifth year, all are doing very well.

Lady's Bedstraw with Humming-bird Hawkmoth

Lady’s Bedstraw with a very blurry Humming-bird Hawkmoth. Back garden, 3rd July 2019.

Notes

Note 1 – The Rubiaceae is the fourth-largest family of angiosperms (flowering plants). Worldwide, there are about 13,500 species of Rubiaceae in 611 genera. British species are  annual or perennial herbs, many of which scramble over or through surrounding vegetation. But in the sub-tropics the family contains shrubs, including Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, which give us coffee, and trees, including Cinchona, which gives us quinine to prevent malaria and flavour tonic water.

Note 2 – I haven’t been back to Witley Court since the early 1970s, but the website shows that the grounds have been restored and I wonder whether the Lady’s Bedstraw and other lovely flowers have gone in the tidy up. I hope not.

Note 3 –  Ali Esmail Al-Snafi, in “Galium Verum – A Review”, Indo Am. J. P. Sci, 2018; 05(04), the following countries are listed:

  • In Africa: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia;
  • In Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan,Georgia, Russian Federation, China, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Pakistan;
  • In Europe: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, France, Portugal and Spain.

Note 4 – A couple of years ago I did try cooking Lady’s Bedstraw’s close relative Cleavers or Goosegrass, Galium aparine, but it was revolting, like over-stewed tea but nastier. (In all fairness, it tasted much better raw.)

Note 5 – Purpurin and alizarin also occur in the dye plant Common Madder, Rubia tinctorum. This is sometimes naturalised in the UK. The related Wild Madder, Rubia peregrina, is a British native, mostly in the south-west. Rubia tinctorum is the source of the dye rose madder. Which reminds me of a limerick:

“While Titian was mixing rose madder,
His model reclined on a ladder.
Her position to Titian
Suggested coition,
So he leapt up the ladder and had ‘er.”

(If you want to be distracted further, there are variations on this theme, involving other pigments, in the Jim McWilliam Collection of Limericks. But if you find this offensive, my apologies – please go back to the main text.)

Note 6 – Nowadays Cheddar cheese is dyed with annatto, from the South American Achiote tree, Bixa orellana.