Spearmint  Spearmint, also known as garden mint, common mint, lamb mint and mackerel mint, is a species of mint, Mentha spicata, native to Europe and southern temperate Asia, extending from Ireland in the west to southern China in the east. It is naturalized in many other temperate parts of the world, including northern and southern Africa, North America and South America. It is used as a flavouring in food and herbal teas. The aromatic oil, called oil of spearmint, is also used as a flavouring and sometimes as a scent. The species and its subspecies have many synonyms, including "Mentha crispa", "Mentha crispata" and "Mentha viridis". Spearmint is a perennial herbaceous plant. It is tall, with variably hairless to hairy stems and foliage, and a wide-spreading fleshy underground rhizome from which it grows. The leaves are long and broad, with a serrated margin. The stem is square-shaped, a defining characteristic of the mint family of herbs. Spearmint produces flowers in slender spikes, each flower pink or white in colour, long, and broad. Spearmint flowers in the summer (from July to September in the northern hemisphere), and has relatively large seeds, which measure . The name 'spear' mint derives from the pointed leaf tips. "Mentha spicata" varies considerably in leaf blade dimensions, the prominence of leaf veins, and pubescence. "Mentha spicata" was first described scientifically by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The epithet "spicata" means 'bearing a spike'. The species has two accepted subspecies, each of which has acquired a large number of synonyms:  The plant is a tetraploid species (2"n" = 48), which could be a result of hybridization and chromosome doubling. "Mentha longifolia" and "Mentha suaveolens" (2"n" = 24) are likely to be the contributing diploid species. "Mentha spicata" hybridizes with other "Mentha" species, forming hybrids such as:   Mention of spearmint dates back to at least the 1st century AD, with references from naturalist Pliny and mentions in the Bible. Further records show descriptions of mint in ancient mythology. Findings of early versions of toothpaste using mint in the 14th century suggest widespread domestication by this point.