Mesosphaerum pectinatum(L.) Kuntze

comb bushmint

WFO wfo-0000242198 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by kbkash
fig. a kbkash, CC0 1.0 / 2021-03-11 / obs. 115613357
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. b Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 62171440
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. c Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31201108
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. d Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30967104
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by John Gaskin
fig. e John Gaskin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 183818520
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. f Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182528009
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. g Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182532685
Mesosphaerum pectinatum, photographed by Jacek Pietruszewski
fig. h Jacek Pietruszewski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179010936

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 39 botanical countries

Regions where Mesosphaerum pectinatum is native: Florida, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. FloridaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasCayman Is.Leeward Is.Netherlands AntillesVenezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Mesosphaerum pectinatum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexican Pacific Is. MXI
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Not drawn on the map: Mexican Pacific Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 341 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.2 °C 18.4 °C 21.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.1 °C 26.5 °C 32.0 °C
Annual rainfall 694 mm 1,271 mm 4,185 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 19 mm 140 mm 821 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 341 research-grade observations of Mesosphaerum pectinatum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 16 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ballota disticha Rodsch.
  • Ballota parviflora Sessé & Moc.
  • Ballota suaveolens Rodsch.
  • Brotera persica Spreng.
  • Bystropogon coarctatus Thonn. & Schumach.
  • Bystropogon pectinatus (L.) L'Hér.
  • Clinopodium imbricatum Vell.
  • Hyptis nepetoides Fisch. ex Schrank
  • Hyptis pectinata (L.) Poit.
  • Hyptis persica (Spreng.) Poit.
  • Hyptis racemosa Zuccagni
  • Mentha perilloides L.
  • Nepeta aristata Rich.
  • Nepeta pectinata L.
  • Nepeta persica Poit. ex Benth.
  • Pogostemon perilloides (L.) Mansf.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol HYPE3. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.