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San Benito thorn-mint

Acanthomintha obovata

San Benito thorn-mint
Photo: John Game, CC BY 2.0

San Benito thorn-mint is a small annual wildflower from California's coastal ranges, growing up to about 25 cm with spiny bracts and purple-tipped white flowers. It is rarely grown in gardens and does best in a sunny spot with clay soil and little summer water.

Family
Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly, mainly in the wet winter and spring season; it needs dry summers.
Soil
Heavy clay or clay-loam soil, as found in its native grasslands.
Temperature
Tolerates cool winters and warm dry summers typical of California; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
California
Climate
subtropical

About

Acanthomintha obovata is a species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common name San Benito thornmint. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the woodland and chaparral of the coastal mountain ranges in the central part of the state.

Other Acanthomintha plants

San Mateo thorn-mint · San Diego thorn-mint · Santa Clara thorn-mint · Thorn-mint

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acanthomintha obovata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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