Can anyone identify my mint plants?

Question

I found one of the plants growing near a stream, it has large leaves, a redish stem and a powerfuly minty taste. The other has been gowing near my house, with smaller, more wrinkled looking leaves, and a less bold taste. I will try to find somewhere to put in pictures, can anyone help me identify them?

Answer 1

Plants are almost never identified just from their leaves... flowers are especially useful in species identifications.

Added: What do you mean when you say there are "no flowers on mint plants"? They are angiosperms (flowering plants) after all... See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentha

Answer 2

The one with the bolder taste could be peppermint or spearmint.  Your photos don't include enough of the base of the leaf to tell if the leaves are sessile (no, or very short stems, as in spearmint:  http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symb... ) or if they have stems which connect them to the plant (peppermint or watermint:  http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symb... , http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symb... ).

If the taste more resembles Earl Grey tea, this could be a species of Monarda/bee balm/bergamot:  http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symb... , http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symb...

If you enter your zip code into this website http://www.enature.com/home/ , then change the category from birds to wildflowers in the results box, you can look through a list of what occurs in the area in which you live to narrow down the possibilities.

But to be absolutely sure of the ID, you would need to key out specific features of the flowers (and mints will get flowers in the proper season) and leaves which may not be evident in a photograph.  If you wait till summer when the flowers are present (if the site where these grow get sufficient sunlight for the plants to bloom), you could try using a good field guide like Newcomb's or Peterson's guide to wildflowers (these may be available at a local library) and identify these yourself.  Also, most areas have a regional botanical club which might be able to help you out.

Answer 3

They both could be the same plant. The one with smaller leaves and a less bold taste could be younger, and the other one with larger leaves and bolder taste could be a mature, flourishing version of the same plant. It could be peppermint, but like another poster mentioned, just looking at the leaves makes a positive id. difficult.