Wild mint
Mentha arvensis
Also called Field mint, Canada mint
- Cree
- wácask mícówin
Know another name for this plant, or a different spelling? Tell us.
The mint that grows along creeks and in wet meadows. Easy to identify by smell, easy to dry, and a good first plant to learn with children.
Commonly shared knowledge. Learn it, gather it, and follow the protocol.
Take care
- Do not gather from ditches beside sprayed fields or busy roads.
- Mint is often found in the same wet ground as water hemlock. Know what is growing around you before you kneel down and start picking.
What it is confused with
Easily confusedHedge nettle and other mint-family plants Stachys palustris
Many plants in this family have square stems and paired leaves. Only mint smells like mint. Hedge nettle smells unpleasant and its flowers sit in a spike at the top of the stem rather than in rings down it.
How to know it
- Smell
- Unmistakably mint when a leaf is crushed. If there is no mint smell, it is not mint.
- Stem
- Square in cross-section. Roll it between your fingers and you will feel the four edges.
- Leaves
- Opposite pairs, each pair turned at a right angle to the one below, toothed, pointed, and slightly hairy.
- Flowers
- Small pale lilac or white flowers in tight rings where the leaves meet the stem, not in a spike at the top.
The country it grows in
- Riverbanks and willow flats
- Sloughs and wet meadows
- Aspen parkland
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Leaves June to SeptemberStrongest just before and during flowering.
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Stomach and digestion
- Food and drink
- Rest and calm
- Teaching with youth
Long used as a tea, and as a flavour and scent.
One of the gentlest plants on this page and a good one to teach with.
How it is prepared
- Tea
A handful of fresh leaves or a pinch of dried leaf in hot water, steeped covered so the scent does not escape.
- Dried and stored
Hang in small bundles out of the sun. Strip the leaf once it is crisp and store it whole rather than crushed.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.
Pinch the tops rather than pulling stems. Mint spreads by runners and a pinched patch comes back thicker.