Some species like the Coleus, a house plant with red and green leaves, have no aroma at all, while a patch of the more potent Agastache may bring tears to your eyes just passing through. You can safely sample any member of the Mint family. Eating a few Mint leaves after drinking from a creek certainly won't kill everything in the water, but it sure helps. On camping trips I often use aromatic Mints to help purify questionable water. Volatile oils are also highly lethal to microorganisms. Using a diaphoretic herb can help raise a mild fever just high enough to "cook" a virus, thus "breaking" or ending the fever. A fever is the body's way of "cooking" the microorganisms that cause infections. This property can help you break a fever. These spicy oils are stimulating and warming, causing the body to open up and sweat so most of these plants are listed as diaphoretic in herbal books. Medicinally this family is rich in volatile oils, especially menthol, often used as the penetrating vapors in cough drops. Approximately 50 genera are found in North America. Worldwide there are about 180 genera in the Mint Family representing some 3500 species. The rich, spicy quality of these plants makes them useful in cooking, and nearly half the spices in your kitchen come from this one family, including basil, rosemary, lavender, marjoram, germander, thyme, savory, horehound, plus culinary sage (but not sagebrush!), and of course mint, peppermint, and spearmint.įor the beginning botanist, that is all you really need to remember: "square stalks with opposite leaves, and usually aromatic". Be sure to smell it too, since many species of the family are loaded with aromatic volatile oils. If you pick a plant with a distinctly square stalk and simple, opposite leaves, then it is very likely a member of the Mint family. Home | Plant Identification | Plant Families Gallery | Edible Plants | Mushrooms | Linksĭesertification & Weed Ecology | Weed Profiles | E-Mail | Search this Site You can also find me on Facebook.Plant Identification, Edible Plants, Weed Ecology, Mushrooms, and more. Have you tried harvesting mint seeds from your herb garden? Let me know in the comments below.Īre you on Pinterest? I have boards dedicated to Home Gardens and Gardening Tips that you may enjoy. 12 Perennial Herbs For Your Herb Garden. So there are my tips for collecting, saving and planting mint seeds. Harvest sprigs of fresh mint from the plant as you need them and cut the plants back in fall when they’ve finished flowering. Water the plants regularly but try to avoid wetting the leaves to reduce the likelihood of fungal diseases. Mint is a very low maintenance plant that will easily spread out so it’s a good idea to grow it in a container or a section of the garden where it won’t overtake your other plants. Keep the soil moist and the seeds will germinate in 10 to 15 days. Mint seeds are tiny so if you plant them too close together you can always thin them out later. You can also start the seeds indoors in late winter and plant them out in the garden when the temperature has warmed up.Ĭhoose a spot in the garden that is partially shaded and sow the seeds about ¼ inch (6 mm) deep. Mint seeds can be planted directly in the garden or in pots after the last frost of the season.
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