Georgia Wildlife Federation

Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Pycnanthemum incanum

Hoary Mountainmint is a versatile native herbaceous perennial that should be utilized more in the Southern garden. When planning an herb garden for the coming spring, consider this plant as a substitute for other mints which originate from the Mediterranean. Mountainmint makes tasty and healthful teas which the Choctaw used to relieve headaches. It also has a strong fragrance and taste, which more sun tends to enhance.

Mountainmint makes an excellent ornamental as well for its adaptability to a wide variety of sites. Its preference for rocky, well-drained places makes it excellent for south Georgia, a raised herb bed, or even a rock garden. The plant grows and fills in quickly, making it suitable as a groundcover under trees or in other problem spots too dry and shady for many plants.

FAMILY: Lamiaceae (Mint)

DESCIPTION: Mountainmint is a tall, stiff, summer-blooming plant. Like all mints, stems are square and oppositely branched. Leaves are 1 ½-4” long, opposite, lanceolate, and toothed with a strong spearmint fragrance. From early summer the leaves appear to have a dusting of snow. Flowers are small and white with the bottom lip spotted with purple, appearing in dense rounded clusters in the leaf axils or terminating the stems and branches.

SIZE: 1-4 feet tall by 4 feet wide

HABIT: Mountainmint is an upright, rhizomatous perennial herb.

LIGHT: Part sun to filtered light

PLANTING AND CARING: Mountainmint prefers rocky, gravelly, and sandy soil. Pinching or cutting the tops back in early spring or after blooming helps to increase the basal foliage and makes the plants branch and fill in. The plant can be aggressive in optimal conditions and may need to be planted either in a container or kept cut back if this is a concern.

ORNAMENTAL VALUE: Assets include the dense white balls of flowers, the scent of the leaves, and the amount of wildlife it brings throughout the summer.

LANDSCAPE USE: Mountainmint is a versatile native plant and can fit in a variety of landscape niches. These include herb gardens, butterfly gardens, as a groundcover, or as part of a shady native meadow in a woodland clearing.

HABITAT: Forest openings and thickets, sand edges, right of ways, and fields

WILDLIFE BENEFITS: Mountainmint is a larval host for the Gray Hairstreak as well as the Sleepy Orange. Colonies of this plant are a mecca for nectar-loving insects like butterflies, moths, bees, and even some wasps. It is also occasionally browsed by deer.