What is "pycnanthemum"

Pycnanthemum is a genus of plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae). They are commonly known as mountain mints (or mountain-mints, mountainmints), though "the mountain mint" may also be any locally common species in particular. Some are known as koellias, after an obsolete genus name.

All of the species in this genus are native to North America. Most are very strongly scented and pungent, and are used in cooking and in making herbal tea. Indeed, like the true mints ( Mentha) they belong to the tribe Mentheae of subfamily Nepetoideae. However, while the mountain-mints are a highly advanced genus most probably closest to the bee balms ( Monarda), which are also endemic to North America, the true mints are part of a more basal and largely European radiation of this tribe.

1. Pycnanthemum albescens Torr. & A.Gray – White-leaved mountainmint - south-central US
2. Pycnanthemum beadlei (Small) Fernald - North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia
3. Pycnanthemum californicum Torr. ex Durand - Sierra mint - California
4. Pycnanthemum clinopodioides Torr. & A.Gray - mid-Atlantic States, Tennessee, Indiana
5. Pycnanthemum curvipes (Greene) E.Grant & Epling - southeastern US
6. Pycnanthemum flexuosum (Walter) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. - southeastern US
7. Pycnanthemum floridanum E.Grant & Epling – Florida mountainmint - Florida, southern Georgia
8. Pycnanthemum incanum (L.) Michx. - Hoary mountainmint, " hoary basil", " wild basil" - Ontario, most of US east of the Mississippi River
9. Pycnanthemum loomisii Nutt. – Loomis' mountainmint - southeastern US, Ohio Valley
10. † Pycnanthemum monotrichum Fernald - Virginia but extinct
11. Pycnanthemum montanum Michx. - southern Appalachians
12. Pycnanthemum muticum (Michx.) Pers.– Short-toothed mountainmint - much of eastern US from east Texas to southern Maine
13. Pycnanthemum nudum Nutt. - southeastern US
14. Pycnanthemum pilosum Nutt. ( = P. verticillatum var. pilosum)
15. Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides (Leavenw.) Fernald – Southern mountainmint - southeastern US, Ohio Valley
16. Pycnanthemum setosum Nutt. – Awned mountainmint - southeastern + mid-Atlantic US
17. Pycnanthemum tenuifolium Schrad. - Little-leaved mountainmint, Slender-leaved Mountainmint (= P. flexuosum auct. non Walter) - Quebec, Ontario, eastern + central US
18. Pycnanthemum torreyi Benth. - Torrey's mountainmint - eastern + east-central US
19. Pycnanthemum verticillatum (Michx.) Pers. – Whorled Mountainmint - Quebec, Ontario, eastern + central US
20. Pycnanthemum virginianum (L.) T.Durand & B.D.Jacks. ex B.L.Rob. - Virginia mountainmint - Quebec, Ontario, eastern + central US