Australia has several native mint plants, and in the Ballarat region we have four.
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All have highly aromatic leaves and can be used much the same as the common culinary mint.
Pictured today is slender mint, one of the scarcer local species. More often found are the forest mint and the river mint, but these are by no means common in our region.
All have much smaller leaves than the common mint used in kitchens. In the case of the slender mint, the leaves are only about 10-12mm long and 4-5mm wide.
The aroma of our four local mints differs slightly, but all have quite a rich minty smell and taste.
Some have higher concentrations of menthol than others. These native mints are used by a growing number of cooks, as well as by those who enjoy mint tea, and those who use the aromatic oil.
Older rural residents commonly used crushed leaves of river mint to repel mosquitoes. Other mints were probably used the same way.
River mint lives up to its name by growing mostly on the edges of creeks and lakes, often in forested situations.
Forest mint – which has the largest leaves of our four local mints – is a plant of shadier forested places, while native pennyroyal and slender mint grow in seasonally inundated places in open or lightly timbered country.
To botanists, river mint is known as Mentha australis, forest mint is M. laxiflora, native pennyroyal is M. saturoides, and slender mint is M. diemenica.
There is a small, highly aromatic exotic mint that has become a weed in some open winter wet places. This one, flowering now, is known as pennyroyal (M. pulegium). It has pale mauve flowers.
Wild forms of spearmint or kitchen mint are sometimes found in damp places. These are much taller plants than the natives and have larger leaves.
MORE FROGS
A month or so ago we mentioned a sighting of thousands of small frogs crossing a rural road near Clunes after a wet night.
A similar report has been received from the Burrumbeet area, where thousands of small frogs were seen at night in car headlights, again after rain. These frogs were stationary on the bitumen road, rather than actively crossing it.
From a rural Skipton area property comes a report of small and large frogs in a sheltered fernery area containing a garden pool and numerous plants.
Photos supplied show not only the expected small brown tree frogs in both green and brown colours, but also a growling grass frog, a much larger and quite uncommon green frog.