Wild Mint (Mentha arvensis) Spearmint (Mentha spicata) and Peppermint Metha piperita

Many of the greens, packaged and sold as fresh mint on your local supermarket produce counter are not mint, (read below, then check it out).
Mint is a herbaceous, rhizomatous, perennial plant, growing to 12–35 in tall, with smooth stems, square in cross section. The rhizomes are wide-spreading, fleshy, and bare fibrous roots.

The varieties of mint found in Western Canada are Wild mint,Spearmint and Peppermint; they all grow in moist areas of the plains, foothills, and mountains. All of the varieties are very common, in the Vancouver British Columbia,  and Edmonton Alberta areas.The photo,directly above, shows mint that was purchased from a supermarket.

 Wild Mint (Mentha arvensis)as this photo clearly shows, a cross section of the mint stem is square, not round.

Spearmint

Peppermint

Although now found wild occasionally with its parent species; Peppermint (Mentha piperita), also known as M. balsamea Willd. is a hybrid mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint and is usually sterile. The plant, indigenous to Europe, is now widespread in cultivation throughout all regions of the world. 

• Peppermint oil has a high concentration of natural pesticides, mainly pulegone(Found mainly in Mentha arvensis
• Powdered leaves can be sprinkled on berries and drying/hanging meat to help keep insects away.
• In 2007, Italian investigators reported that 75% of the patients in their study who took peppermint oil capsules for four weeks had a major reduction in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms, compared with just 38% of those who took a placebo. A second study in 2010, conducted in Iran, found similar results. 

• Plants are edible raw. Probably best used to improve the flavour of other foods; commonly used with meats, especially lamb, or mutton, also added to drinks, and to salads.

©Al (Alex-Alexander )D. Girvan All rights reserved.