Pycnanthemum

Mountain mints
	Short-toothed mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Lamiaceae
Subfamily:	Nepetoideae
Tribe:	Mentheae
Genus:	Pycnanthemum; Michx.
Synonyms
	Furera Adans. ; Brachystemum Michx. ; Koellia Moench ; Tullia Leavenw. ; Pycnanthes Raf. ;

Pycnanthemum is a genus of plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae). They are commonly known as mountain mints (or mountain-mints, mountainmints), though "the mountain mint" may also be any locally common species in particular. Some are known as koellias, after an obsolete genus name.

All of the species in this genus are native to North America.^[1]^[2] Most are very strongly scented and pungent, and are used in cooking and in making herbal tea. Indeed, like the true mints (Mentha) they belong to the tribe Mentheae of subfamily Nepetoideae. However, while the mountain-mints are a highly advanced genus most probably closest to the bee balms (Monarda), which are also endemic to North America, the true mints are part of a more basal and largely European radiation of this tribe.

Species

Pycnanthemum albescens Torr. & A.Gray – white-leaved mountainmint – south-central US
Pycnanthemum beadlei (Small) Fernald – North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia
Pycnanthemum californicum Torr. ex Durand – Sierra mint – California
Pycnanthemum clinopodioides Torr. & A.Gray – mid-Atlantic States, Tennessee, Indiana
Pycnanthemum curvipes (Greene) E.Grant & Epling – southeastern US
Pycnanthemum flexuosum (Walter) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. – southeastern US
Pycnanthemum floridanum E.Grant & Epling – Florida mountainmint – Florida, southern Georgia
Pycnanthemum incanum (L.) Michx. – hoary mountainmint, hoary basil, wild basil – Ontario, most of US east of the Mississippi River
Pycnanthemum loomisii Nutt. – Loomis' mountainmint – southeastern US, Ohio Valley
†Pycnanthemum monotrichum Fernald – Virginia but extinct
Pycnanthemum montanum Michx. – southern Appalachians
Pycnanthemum muticum (Michx.) Pers. – short-toothed mountainmint – much of eastern US from east Texas to southern Maine
Pycnanthemum nudum Nutt. – southeastern US
Pycnanthemum pilosum Nutt. ( = P. verticillatum var. pilosum) – hairy mountainmint, whorled mountainmint
Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides (Leavenw.) Fernald – southern mountainmint – southeastern US, Ohio Valley
Pycnanthemum setosum Nutt. – awned mountainmint – southeastern + mid-Atlantic US
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium Schrad. – little-leaved mountainmint, slender-leaved mountainmint (= P. flexuosum auct. non Walter) – Quebec, Ontario, eastern + central US
Pycnanthemum torreyi Benth. – Torrey's mountainmint – eastern + east-central US
Pycnanthemum verticillatum (Michx.) Pers. – whorled mountainmint – Quebec, Ontario, eastern + central US
Pycnanthemum virginianum (L.) T.Durand & B.D.Jacks. ex B.L.Rob. – Virginia mountainmint – Quebec, Ontario, eastern + central US