Pennyroyal - Mentha pulegium

Mentha pulegium produces whorls of axillary lilac-mauve flowers. Corollas are hairy on the outside, four-lobed and have four protruding stamens.  Calyx tubes have 2 lower teeth that are longer and narrower than the 3 upper teeth. The elliptic-ovate yellow-green opposite leaves are strongly channelled, have a few very small teeth. They are dotted with glands containing a strongly mint-scented oil. The stems root at the nodes and have fine, downy hairs.

Good photographs required and a specimen may be necessary.

Typically found in damp grassland overlying silt or clay.

In flower during August, September and October.

Perennial.

Rare as a true native plant in Britain, but garden escapes and introductions cloud the true picture.

Rarely recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland where most records are probably introductions.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but is not on the current RPR (Hall & Woodward, 2022) because records are of introduced plants