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I plant several types of mints in my garden but the naming keeps confusing me. There are some types that I thought I know the names but then searching through the Internet shown that the known names are wrong, or may be the information from the Internet was misleading.

Please help me identify the following mints.

Pictures:

The mints

A. This seems to be popular and easy to grow but I don't realy know the name. The leaves are pretty thick. The smell and taste are strong and just like the gum.

B. Looks like Peppermint but the leaves seems to be cleaner, thinner and smoother in the surface. This does not smell as menthol, the taste is simple and plain.

C. Looks very similar to 'B' but with purple stems. Very similar to the B in terms of smell and taste. This is far from chocolate as I have chocolate mint in my garden and its leaves are much thicker than this one.

D. Seems to be cat mint, the leaves are pretty thin. The smell of this one is very close to lemongrass

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  • Does the cat mint/nip smell like the mint we all recognise? The purple stemmed one might be Peppermint. Need pictures of flowers, buds, closeups of stems as well. Any smell like...chocolate?
    – stormy
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 19:10
  • I added into the question the taste for each of these and also their stems picture. It is unfortunately that there is no flowers and buds now. I guess I need to wait.
    – Dương Thành An
    Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 15:24

2 Answers 2

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Mint or Mentha are from the family Lamiaceae, which are really hard to distinguish, There are all kinds of hybrids and weather and soil can affect the shape to an extent to be mistaken. And if you could wait for the flowers it would be easier to tell them apart.

But if you ask me I'll say

  • A - Pepper Mint
  • B - Spear Mint
  • C - Candy Mint(Chocolate Mint)
  • D - Balm Mint (Lemon Mint)

Again, common names for plants are not standards and many people in different places might call two different variations with the same name.

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    I think pepper mint is more purplish, so it would be C, if any. B might be Moroccan mint. Anyway, I think your first line contains the real answer and the varieties are better distinguished by taste than by looks.
    – GolezTrol
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 6:43
  • @GolezTrol, yea I agree and I wasn't sure at all about A
    – azerafati
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 6:54
  • but pepper mint is named after the taste more than the look.
    – azerafati
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 7:09
  • B looks like my spearmint.
    – sborsher
    Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 13:26
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    I think that identifying D as Balm Mint seems to be reasonable as it smell much like lemongrass. The C is not Chocolate Mint as I have Chocolate Mint in my garden and the leaves are much thicker. The C is just almost exactly like the B but with just purple stems.
    – Dương Thành An
    Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 15:29
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i think (A) it's white mint. not peppermint

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  • Please explain why you think it's white mint. Thanks and welcome to the site.
    – Niall C. ♦
    Commented Aug 11, 2019 at 16:49

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