Mints of the Continental US and Canada's Journal

I was recently asked by @carexobnupta to describe my method of photographing mints, and I had fun picking out some examples. Maybe it's helpful to post it here too to give observers an idea of what they may need to document in order to post an identifiable mint.

I'm not always great at sticking to my standards, but I generally take photos of the front view of the corolla, side view of the corolla, fruit (if present), the inflorescence/infructescence, both surfaces of the leaves, and the whole plant in its substrate. This is great for mints of the continental US and Canada, and it is sufficient for species-level identification of nearly every one of the species that occur there.

Here are some examples:

• Conradina etonia
• Nepeta cataria
• Monarda punctata
• Pycnanthemum nudum
• Glechoma hederacea (missing the abaxial leaf surface)
• Salvia henry (missing the abaxial leaf surface)

You'll notice I generally like to arrange the photos in a specific order. It represents the way I view mints.

Here are some examples of species that I'm particularly interested in that I go more in depth on:

• Monarda citriodora
• Monarda humilis
• Monarda pectinata
• Monarda pectinata (with presence estimation map)

I'm a little less standardized with fruiting and dead plants, but here are some examples:

• Trichostema dichotomum
• Monarda russeliana
• Scutellaria integrifolia
• Scutellaria multiglandulosa

When there is no evidence of flowering or fruiting, close up images of all features can go a long way:

• Piloblephis rigida
• Blephilia hirsuta
• Dicerandra densiflora

Hopefully this helps to explain what features mint IDers hope to see in observations.