Plants of
South Australia
Mentha satureioides
Lamiaceae
Creeping Mint,
Native Pennyroyal
Display all 14 images
Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Extinct
Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
Yunta
Enlarge Map
Copy Map
Copy Map
Display IBRA region text

Botanical art

Kath Alcock painting: 1

Common names

Creeping Mint

Native Pennyroyal

Etymology

Mentha, a Latin name of a Greek nymph who was turned into a mint plant. Satureioides means resembling the genus Satureia, (which is from the Latin 'satureia', meaning savory).

Distribution and status

Found scattered from the Gammon, Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges, southern Eyre Peninsula and the upper South-east in South Australia, growing on heavy, seasonally wet soils. Also found Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Native. Rare in South Australia. Common in the other States.
Herbarium regions: Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Rhizomatous, often mat-forming perennial herb with ascending or prostrate branches; often rooting at lower nodes; glabrous, or covered with short spreading hairs. Leaves narrowly elliptical to 35 mm long and 7 mm wide; surfaces glabrous;, apex obtuse or rounded with margin entire. Inflorescence, in clusters with 3 tubular white or pink flowers in axils of distal leaves. Flowering from November to March. Fruits are small clusters of papery brown capsules in axis of leaves. Seeds are dark brown to black ovoid seed to 1.2 mm long and 0.7 mm wide, with a slightly wrinkled surface. Seed embryo type is spatulate.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between February and May. Collect individual capsules that are turning brown and contain hard seeds or break off whole stems with numerous brown capsules. Place the capsules in a tray and leave to dry for a week. Then rub the capsules gently with a rubber bung to dislodge the seeds from the capsules. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Some seeds will be empty. Use an aspirator to siphon off the lighter, non-viable seeds from the heavier good seeds. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability was low, at 15%.

Seeds stored:
  Hide
LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA 
MSB
5,800 (1.92 g)
5,800 (1.92 g)
200+9-May-2007DJD789
South Eastern
1-Aug-200715%+5°C, -18°C
BGA123 (0.038 g)302-May-2017DJD3290
Murray
1-Nov-2017N/C-18°C
BGA800 (0.29 g)1218-Apr-2017DJD3644
Murray
1-Nov-201760%-18°C
BGA190 (0.057 g)31-Jul-2018Kaiser Stuhl
Murray
24-Apr-2019N/C-18°C
BGA340 (0.17 g)27-Sep-2019Kanmantoo
Murray
24-Jun-2020N/C-18°C
BGA700 (0.205 g)31-May-2019Kaiser Stuhl
Murray
24-Jun-202080%-18°C
BGA1,600 (0.630 g)20+1-Jul-2020TST1447
Murray
28-Jun-202185%-18°C
BGA1,700 (0.605 g)13-Aug-2021TST1447
Murray
7-Jul-202285%-18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.