There’s a particular family of mint native to our very own Ramapo Mountains. If you know where to look you might see Hoary Mountain Mint on the highest hilltops above Sloatsburg, especially at places on Torne Mountain.
Native Blunt Mountain Mint growing wild hillside in Sloatsburg, NY.
The family of Mountain Mints (Pycnanthemum) are native only to North America, and appear to love this area. Mountain Mints are much different than the popular old world mints known as Mentha.
Geoff Welch, Curator of Harmony Hall, has a whole garden of Mountain Mint growing at the Jacob Sloat House in Sloatsburg. The mint patches at Harmony Hall have been cultivated for some ten years now and grow tall with large very chewable leaves. Mountain Mint is considered one of the strongest natural mints — chew a leaf of Blunt Mountain Mint and you’ll find out why.
Welch, a member of the Palisades Interstate Park League of Naturists and the Sterling Forest Partnership, is an expert of sorts on the local native North American mints, having scouted the species for many years in its surrounding natural habitat.
Geoff recently presented a colorful slide show and talk on the variety of Mountain Mint in the area at the Sterling Forest Visitor Center on Old Forge Road in Tuxedo Park.
Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Atteva aurea) on a Blunt Mountain Mint Plant in the Farmony Herb Garden at Harmony Hall. Blunt Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum Muticum) is a New York State threatened species.Blunt Mountain Mint begins flowering in mid-July.
For hundreds of years Mountain Mint was a medicinal staple of Native Americans in the highlands region. Welch said that the crushed leaves repel insects and even today local crafters use the mint in lips balms, salves and other products.
The nectar of the flowers attracts insect traffic so ensure space around any garden of Mountain Mint as hordes of bees, wasps, moths and butterflies will come calling.
Geoff Welch’s photographs show Mountain Mint in both its wild setting and in a garden setting with the various interesting insects that visit this pungently-scented plant.
