Hoary Mountain-mint
Pycnanthemum incanum
Native to Mississippi (estimated). How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 82%
- Height
- 3–6 feet
- Spread
- 2–4 feet
- Light
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Soil moisture
- Somewhat dry to moist
Space about 3 ft apart from its recorded spread, about 11 per 100 sq ft. Enter your bed size for a count
Will it fit your yard?
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial
- Leaves
- Deciduous
- Fruiting season
- Fall
Not yet recorded · Bloom
Recorded in 9 Mississippi counties.
Who uses this plant?
4CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including MS
Genus host records with ranges including MS · Pycnanthemum
- Chloridea virescensTobacco Budworm Moth
- Eutrapela clematariaCurved-Tooth Geometer, Purplish Brown Looper
- Lintneria eremitusHermit Sphinx
- Chionodes pseudofondella
62BeesSoutheastern regional records
Southeastern regional records · Pycnanthemum
Individual names are not available yet.
Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
0Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimNo records yet · Ants · Beetles · Flies · Adult butterflies / moths · Other wasps · Other insects
Plant details
- Family
- Lamiaceae
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–8b
- Flower color
- Purple or white
- Fruit begins
- Fall
- Fruit ends
- Fall
What its natural habitat tells you
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Flower color · “Purple or white” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Fruit begins · “Fall” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox · Species profile fruit display season; not a local ripening date
- Fruit ends · “Fall” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox · Species profile fruit display season; not a local ripening date
- Hardiness · “Zones 4a–8b” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Height · “3–6 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards differs)
- Leaves · “Deciduous” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Light · “Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day); Partial shade (direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards, Virginia DCR Piedmont, Virginia DCR Coastal Plain differ)
- Soil · “Moist; Occasionally dry” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards, Virginia DCR Piedmont, Virginia DCR Coastal Plain differ)
- Spread · “2–4 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
Also known as
Hoary Mountain Mint
Conservation status
| Mississippi rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| MS status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Growing cautions
- Self-seeds. Roots by stems and self-seeds easily; weedy tendencies. NC State Extension Plant Toolbox
For planning only; these do not change the score or Fit.
Sources
- USDA PLANTS
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina (NC Natural Heritage Program)
- Mississippi occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications