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enter image description hereThis is a volunteer in a Seattle garden. The leaves are light-green, fuzzy, and highly scented, although not in the same way as any Mint I am familiar with. It has been slowly spreading for the last 3 or 4 years and sends out runners just like Mint. Tiny pale violet flowers occur in whorls as shown in photo. The flowering stems (square in cross-section) rarely exceed 6 inches in height.

kreemoweet
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  • Can you describe the odor at all? Is it herbal, chemical, sharp, sweet, citrus-y, ... ? Does it remind you of anything specific? – csk Jun 24 '21 at 15:35
  • If there's a botanical garden near you that has a decent collection of mints, you could bring a sprig of your mint there and compare its odor to the mints in their collection. Or you might find some labeled mint plants in a garden at a local nature center or nature preserve. The key is finding some place where the mint plants have labels on them, so once you find one that matches yours, you can find out what it's called. – csk Jun 24 '21 at 15:38
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    @csk: Odor I would call sweet, herbally, with notes of banana and pineapple. It is a very pleasant scent. I have a little mint demo patch with 10 varieties of mint, and they all smell unambiguously "minty", unlike my ?? plant. The Univ. of Wash. Medicinal Herb Garden is close by, I will visit soon, but do not recall any such specimen as I have. – kreemoweet Jun 25 '21 at 02:17
  • There is a mint called pineapple mint (Mentha suaveolens ‘Variegata’), although the leaf veins seem more deeply indented than yours. The same species has a variety called apple mint. Both kinds might be available at a garden center. Also, since it's blooming now, if you could get a good, closeup photo of the flowers that might help with ID. Field mint (Mentha arvensis) is a possibility in your region, but I can't tell from the photos if the flowers match. (And I have no idea if the scent profile would be the same; my guidebook just says "aromatic.") – csk Jun 25 '21 at 17:55
  • @kreemoweet Which ten varieties of mint do you have? – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Jun 25 '21 at 23:11
  • There are so many species of mint. This reminds me of *Mentha arvensis*. – user1469762 Jun 26 '21 at 01:03

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