51-904: Mentha , also known as mint (from Greek μίνθα míntha , Linear B mi-ta ), is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae . It is estimated that 13 to 24 species exist, but the exact distinction between species is unclear. Hybridization occurs naturally where some species' ranges overlap. Many hybrids and cultivars are known. The genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution, growing best in wet environments and moist soils. Mints are aromatic, almost exclusively perennial herbs . They have wide-spreading underground and overground stolons and erect, square, branched stems. Mints will grow 10–120 cm (4–48 inches) tall and can spread over an indeterminate area. Due to their tendency to spread unchecked, some mints are considered invasive . The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, from oblong to lanceolate, often downy, and with
102-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
153-409: A serrated margin. Leaf colors range from dark green and gray-green to purple, blue, and sometimes pale yellow. The flowers are produced in long bracts from leaf axils. They are white to purple and produced in false whorls called verticillasters. The corolla is two-lipped with four subequal lobes, the upper lobe usually the largest. The fruit is a nutlet, containing one to four seeds . Mentha
204-546: A cool aftertaste, and are used in teas, beverages, jellies, syrups, candies, and ice creams. In Middle Eastern cuisine , mint is used in lamb dishes, while in British cuisine and American cuisine , mint sauce and mint jelly are used, respectively. Mint (pudina) is a staple in Indian cuisine , used for flavouring curries and other dishes. Mint is a necessary ingredient in Touareg tea ,
255-401: A few days in plastic bags in a refrigerator. Optionally, leaves can be frozen in ice cube trays. Dried mint leaves should be stored in an airtight container placed in a cool, dark, dry area. The leaf, fresh or dried, is the culinary source of mint. Fresh mint is usually preferred over dried mint when storage of the mint is not a problem. The leaves have a warm, fresh, aromatic, sweet flavor with
306-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
357-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
408-638: A mint plant by either Persephone or Demeter . This, in turn, ultimately derived from a proto-Indo-European root that is also the origin of the Sanskrit -mantha, mathana ( premna serratifolia ). References to "mint leaves", without a qualifier like "peppermint" or "apple mint", generally refer to spearmint leaves. In Spain and Central and South America , mint is known as menta . In Lusophone countries, especially in Portugal , mint species are popularly known as hortelã . In many Indo-Aryan languages , it
459-627: A mint. In common usage, other plants with fragrant leaves may be called "mint", although they are not in the mint family: Mentha pliocenica fossil seeds have been excavated in Pliocene deposits of Dvorets on the right bank of the Dnieper river between the cities of Rechitsa and Loyew , in south-eastern Belarus . The fossil seeds are similar to the seeds of Mentha aquatica and Mentha arvensis . Ancient Greek Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes
510-437: A network of runners . Due to their speedy growth, one plant of each desired mint, along with a little care, will provide more than enough mint for home use. Some mint species are more invasive than others. Even with the less invasive mints, care should be taken when mixing any mint with any other plants, lest the mint take over. To control mints in an open environment, they should be planted in deep, bottomless containers sunk in
561-505: A popular tea in northern African and Arab countries. Alcoholic drinks sometimes feature mint for flavor or garnish, such as the mint julep and the mojito . Crème de menthe is a mint-flavored liqueur used in drinks such as the grasshopper . Mint essential oil and menthol are extensively used as flavorings in breath fresheners, drinks, antiseptic mouth rinses , toothpaste , chewing gum , desserts , and candies , such as mint (candy) and mint chocolate . The substances that give
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#1732858092775612-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
663-671: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek , and Koine may be classified as Ancient Greek in a wider sense. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
714-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
765-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
816-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
867-650: Is a member of the tribe Mentheae in the subfamily Nepetoideae . The tribe contains about 65 genera, and relationships within it remain obscure. Authors have disagreed on the circumscription of Mentha . For example, M. cervina has been placed in Pulegium and Preslia , and M. cunninghamii has been placed in Micromeria . In 2004, a molecular phylogenetic study indicated that both M. cervina and M. cunninghamii should be included in Mentha . However, M. cunninghamii
918-401: Is a modified stolon. The term "tuber" is often used imprecisely and is sometimes applied to plants with rhizomes. The plant uses the rhizome to store starches , proteins , and other nutrients. These nutrients become useful for the plant when new shoots must be formed or when the plant dies back for the winter. If a rhizome is separated, each piece may be able to give rise to a new plant. This
969-775: Is a process known as vegetative reproduction and is used by farmers and gardeners to propagate certain plants. This also allows for lateral spread of grasses like bamboo and bunch grasses . Examples of plants that are propagated this way include hops , asparagus , ginger , irises, lily of the valley , cannas , and sympodial orchids . Stored rhizomes are subject to bacterial and fungal infections , making them unsuitable for replanting and greatly diminishing stocks. However, rhizomes can also be produced artificially from tissue cultures . The ability to easily grow rhizomes from tissue cultures leads to better stocks for replanting and greater yields. The plant hormones ethylene and jasmonic acid have been found to help induce and regulate
1020-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
1071-453: Is also used as an environmentally friendly insecticide for its ability to kill some common pests such as wasps, hornets, ants, and cockroaches. Known in Greek mythology as the herb of hospitality, one of mint's first known uses in Europe was as a room deodorizer. The herb was strewn across floors to cover the smell of the hard-packed soil. Stepping on the mint helped to spread its scent through
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#17328580927751122-460: Is an ingredient of many cosmetics and some perfumes . Menthol and mint essential oil are also used in aromatherapy which may have clinical use to alleviate post-surgery nausea . Although it is used in many consumer products , mint may cause allergic reactions in some people, inducing symptoms such as abdominal cramps , diarrhea , headaches , heartburn , tingling or numbing around the mouth, anaphylaxis , or contact dermatitis . Mint oil
1173-484: Is called pudīna : Urdu : پودینہ , Hindi : पुदीना , Sindhi : ڦُودنو , Bengali : পুদিনা borrowed from Persian پودنه pudna or پونه puna meaning " pennyroyal ". The taxonomic family Lamiaceae is known as the mint family. It includes many other aromatic herbs, including most of the more common cooking herbs, such as basil , rosemary , sage , oregano , and catnip . As an English colloquial term, any small mint-flavored confectionery item can be called
1224-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
1275-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
1326-745: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
1377-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
1428-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
1479-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
1530-759: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Rhizome In botany and dendrology , a rhizome ( / ˈ r aɪ z oʊ m / RY -zohm ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes . Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks . Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow horizontally. The rhizome also retains
1581-489: The World Online recognized the following species: There are a number of plants that have mint in the common English name but which do not belong to the genus Mentha : The mint genus has a large grouping of recognized hybrids. Those accepted by Plants of the World Online are listed below. Parent species are taken from Tucker & Naczi (2007). Synonyms, along with cultivars and varieties where available, are included within
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1632-437: The ability to allow new shoots to grow upwards. A rhizome is the main stem of the plant that runs typically underground and horizontally to the soil surface. Rhizomes have nodes and internodes and auxiliary buds. Roots do not have nodes and internodes and have a root cap terminating their ends. In general, rhizomes have short internodes, send out roots from the bottom of the nodes, and generate new upward-growing shoots from
1683-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
1734-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
1785-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
1836-611: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
1887-663: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
1938-935: The ground, or planted above ground in tubs and barrels. Some mints can be propagated by seed, but growth from seed can be an unreliable method for raising mint for two reasons: mint seeds are highly variable (i.e. one might not end up with what was supposedly planted) and some mint varieties are sterile. It is more effective to take and plant cuttings from the runners of healthy mints. The most common and popular mints for commercial cultivation are peppermint ( Mentha × piperita ), native spearmint ( Mentha spicata ), Scotch spearmint ( Mentha x gracilis ), and cornmint ( Mentha arvensis ); also (more recently) apple mint ( Mentha suaveolens ). Mints are supposed to make good companion plants , repelling insect pests and attracting beneficial ones. They are susceptible to whitefly and aphids . Harvesting of mint leaves can be done at any time. Fresh leaves should be used immediately or stored up to
1989-445: The growth of rhizomes, specifically in rhubarb . Ethylene that was applied externally was found to affect internal ethylene levels, allowing easy manipulations of ethylene concentrations. Knowledge of how to use these hormones to induce rhizome growth could help farmers and biologists to produce plants grown from rhizomes, and more easily cultivate and grow better plants. Some plants have rhizomes that grow above ground or that lie at
2040-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
2091-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
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2142-461: The larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including buff ermine moths, and by beetles, such as Chrysolina coerulans (blue mint beetle) and C. herbacea (mint leaf beetle). All mints thrive near pools of water, lakes, rivers, and cool moist spots in partial shade. In general, mints tolerate a wide range of conditions, and can also be grown in full sun. Mint grows all year round. They are fast-growing, extending their reach along surfaces through
2193-624: The mints their characteristic aromas and flavors are menthol (the main aroma of peppermint and Japanese peppermint) and pulegone (in pennyroyal and Corsican mint). The compound primarily responsible for the aroma and flavor of spearmint is L - carvone . The ancient Greeks rubbed mint on their arms, believing it would make them stronger. Mint was originally used as a medicinal herb to treat stomach ache and chest pains . There are several uses in traditional medicine and preliminary research for possible use of peppermint in treating irritable bowel syndrome . Menthol from mint essential oil (40–90%)
2244-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
2295-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
2346-452: The room. Today, it is more commonly used for aromatherapy through the use of essential oils. The word "mint" descends from the Latin word mentha or menta , which is rooted in the Greek words μίνθα mintha , μίνθη minthē or μίντη mintē meaning " spearmint ". The plant was personified in Greek mythology as Minthe , a nymph who was beloved by Hades and was transformed into
2397-408: The specific nothospecies. There are hundreds of common English names for species and cultivars of Mentha . These include: The genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution across Europe, Africa – (Southern Africa), Asia, Australia – Oceania, North America and South America. Its species can be found in many environments, but most grow best in wet environments and moist soils. Mints are used as food by
2448-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
2499-412: The top of the nodes. A stolon is similar to a rhizome, but stolon sprouts from an existing stem having long internodes and generating new shoots at the ends, they are often also called runners such as in the strawberry plant. A stem tuber is a thickened part of a rhizome or stolon that has been enlarged for use as a storage organ . In general, a tuber is high in starch , e.g. the potato , which
2550-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
2601-768: Was excluded in a 2007 treatment of the genus. More than 3,000 names have been published in the genus Mentha , at ranks from species to forms, the majority of which are regarded as synonyms or illegitimate names . The taxonomy of the genus is made difficult because many species hybridize readily, or are themselves derived from possibly ancient hybridization events. Seeds from hybrids give rise to variable offspring, which may spread through vegetative propagation. The variability has led to what has been described as "paroxysms of species and subspecific taxa"; for example, one taxonomist published 434 new mint taxa for central Europe alone between 1911 and 1916. Recent sources recognize between 18 and 24 species. As of December 2020, Plants of
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