Perilla Mint

Perilla frutescens

Alternate names
Beef-steak Plant

Weed Description
An erect herb with distinctive green or purplish-green leaves with toothed margins. These plants emit a distinctive minty odor, especially when mature. Perilla mint is primarily a weed of pastures, hay fields, fencerows, and roadsides. This plant is extremely toxic to all kinds of cattle, sheep, and horses.

Leaves
Arranged oppositely along the stem, green in color, most often with a distinct purple tinge. Individual leaves are oval-shaped, approximately 2 to 5 inches long, 1 1/2 to 4 inches wide. Leaves occur on petioles, have distinctly toothed margins and emit a minty odor when crushed.

Stems
Erect, from 1/2 to 2 feet in height.

Flowers
Many flowers occur in terminal clusters giving the mature plant a bottle-brush appearance. Individual flowers are small, white to whitish-purple in color, hairy, with an upper lip that is 3-toothed and a lower lip that is 2-toothed.

Identifying Characteristics
The distinctive minty odor and oval, green to purple leaves with toothed margins are all characteristics that help in the identification of perilla mint. Hophornbeam copperleaf (Acalypha ostryifolia) has similar leaves and growth habit, but does not have the characteristic minty odor and greenish purple leaves like those of perilla mint.

Office of Programs

University of Missouri

Perilla Mint

Perilla frutescens