Mentha spicata x suaveolens (M. x villosa)

M. x villosa was known from the wild by at least 1882 and is an increasing garden escape. It was mapped as M. x niliaca by Perring & Sell (1968), but at that stage it was thought to be under-recorded. It may still be more frequent than the current map suggests. M. scotica, formerly considered as a separate species or a variant of M. x villosa, has now been placed within M. spicata. Mentha species and hybrids are taxonomically difficult and rather unfashionable with recorders; there is no illustrated handbook so recording effort has been decidedly uneven.