Species
+

Mentha suaveolens Ehrh.

Alicoli, Apple Mint, Duft-Minze (DE); Round-leaved Mint (EN), Pineapple Mint

Climate known 54 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Mentha suaveolens, the apple mint, pineapple mint, woolly mint or round-leafed mint, is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae. It is native to southern and western Europe including the Mediterranean region. It is a herbaceous, upright perennial plant that is most commonly grown as a culinary herb or for ground cover.

Text from Wikipedia, “Mentha suaveolens”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Mentha”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
Ehrh.
Native to
Great Britain, Belgium, Germany +21
Wild records
733 in range· 75 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Aug, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
900mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 115 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to February and April to May in the northern hemisphere (October to February and April to May at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 900 mm a year, wettest December at 115 mm, driest July at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Mentha graveolens R.Vilm. & M.Barbero; Mentha lapeyrouseana Gand., 1884; Mentha ramondiana Gand., 1884; Mentha rotundifolia L.; Mentha rotundifolia var. ramosa V.Rastetter, 1966 and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to February and April to May in the northern hemisphere (October to February and April to May at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (631 mm of 900 mm) falls in October to February and April to May, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 10.2 °C against a yearly mean of 13.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 900 mm a year, wettest December at 115 mm, driest July at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

900 mm a year at the habitat, 631 mm of it October to February and April to May. Wettest month December at 115 mm, driest July at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 626 mm to 1515 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.7 °C, the absolute minimum -7.3 °C, about 16 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -0.1 °C to 7.4 °C), warmest day 25.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Aug; mean night from 3 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 900 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 598 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 10–43RH 58–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 598 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 6–1411 / 7–1514 / 10–1815 / 13–1919 / 17–2223 / 20–2725 / 22–3126 / 22–3023 / 19–2718 / 15–2113 / 10–1710 / 6–15
Night °C3 / -0–73 / 0–85 / 2–97 / 4–1110 / 8–1314 / 11–1616 / 14–1916 / 14–1914 / 11–1710 / 8–146 / 4–114 / 1–9
Rain mm87 / 58–16971 / 48–13366 / 45–12678 / 52–14076 / 46–12254 / 16–8137 / 4–7545 / 6–7967 / 31–111101 / 70–187103 / 66–192115 / 67–219
DLI11 / 6–1517 / 12–2126 / 19–3133 / 28–3738 / 34–4342 / 36–4843 / 35–5038 / 30–4429 / 22–3419 / 13–2412 / 8–1710 / 5–13
RH %64 / 60–6862 / 59–6560 / 56–6360 / 56–6360 / 55–6359 / 52–6458 / 50–6458 / 50–6460 / 53–6362 / 58–6564 / 60–6864 / 60–69

Each figure is the median across the 598 grid cells holding the 716 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 976:3447 (41.175, -7.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 598 distinct grid cells holding the 716 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 976:3447 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.00_-7.500, lapse-corrected -322 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 337 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreat Britain, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, East Aegean Is., Turkey· introduced: Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Central European Russia, Comoros, West Siberia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Colombia, Chile North
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker41.495, -7.737 · in the densest population, 411 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 733 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 75 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 973 km away. 40 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 733 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mentha suaveolensMentha suaveolensMentha suaveolensMentha suaveolensMentha suaveolensMentha suaveolensMentha suaveolensMentha suaveolens

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Mentha suaveolens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effects ofMentha suaveolensEssential Oil onChlamydia trachomatis
Rosa Sessa, Marisa Di Pietro, F. De Santis, Simone Filardo (2015) · BioMed Research International
Antibacterial and antifungal activity of essential oils of Mentha suaveolens
H. Oumzil, Saı̈d Ghoulami, M. Rhajaoui, A. Ilidrissi (2002) · Phytotherapy Research
Phenolic Compounds and Biological Activity of Selected Mentha Species
Sanja Ćavar Zeljkovıć, Jana Šišková, Karolína Komzáková, Nuria De Diego (2021) · Plants
Effects of Mentha suaveolens Essential Oil Alone or in Combination with Other Drugs in Candida albicans
Annarita Stringaro, Elisabetta Vavala, Marisa Colone, Federico Pepi (2014) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Protein Kinase and HDAC Inhibitors from the Endophytic Fungus Epicoccum nigrum
Mustapha El Amrani, Daowan Lai, Abdessamad Debbab, Amal H. Aly (2013) · Journal of Natural Products
Antibacterial activities of the crude ethanol extracts of medicinal plants against Listeria monocytogenes and some other pathogenic strains.
Kaoutar Bayoub, Tarik Baibai, Driss Mountassif, Abdelaziz Retmane (2010) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Influence of Salt Stress on Growth and Essential Oil Production in Peppermint, Pennyroyal, and Apple Mint
Eman E. Aziz, Hussein Al-Amier, Lyle E. Craker (2008) · Journal of Herbs Spices & Medicinal Plants
Free radical scavenging (DPPH) potential in nine Mentha species
Nisar Ahmad, Hina Fazal, Iftikhar Ahmad, Bilal Haider Abbasi (2011) · Toxicology and Industrial Health
In vitro inhibition of herpes simplex virus type 1 replication by Mentha suaveolens essential oil and its main component piperitenone oxide
Livia Civitelli, Simona Panella, Maria Elena Marcocci, Alberto De Petris (2014) · Phytomedicine
FIELD OBSERVATIONS ON FEEDING OF THE LAND SNAIL HELIX ASPERSA MULLER
J. Iglesias, José Castillejo (1999) · Journal of Molluscan Studies

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Mentha 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.