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Purple Dead Nettle
Lamium purpureum
Purple dead nettle is one tough plant. It
blooms from spring well into summer, but can be found blooming even
on the milder days of winter. The picture at right was taken
in Wildwood in late March, when little else was blooming. One
year a plant appeared by my front doorstep, blooming in February.
It is an annual, coming up each year from seed.
It is a short plant, with egg-shaped to nearly round leaves, about
an inch long, having scalloped edges. There is a terminal
cluster of almost stalkless leaves from which the flowers emerge.
The red to purple flowers are about a quarter inch long.
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Purple dead nettle is not from around here. It is an alien
weed. To a botanist a weed is any wild plant that did not come
to grow where it does by natural processes. Rather, humans
deliberately or accidentally brought it to its new location.
Weeds often thrive in disturbed habitats like roadsides, yards,
gardens, and waste places. This is not surprising since
disturbed places are much the same anywhere in the world.
Plants that are happy in such places are often called weedy, even if
they are native. Indeed, many of our weedy natives are bona
fide weeds in other parts of the world. Our native
tall goldenrod, for example,
is a weed in California, Utah, Arizona, and Europe. Purple
dead nettle is a native of Eurasia and a weed in fields, gardens,
and disturbed sites in North America from Newfoundland to Michigan,
south to Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Several
other members of the genus Lamium are also weeds in North
America. In fact no member of the genus is native here; they
all hail from Eurasia. The genus Lamium is in the Lamiaceae,
or Mint Family; in fact it lends its name to the family. A
number of other members of this family occur in Wildwood, including
showy skullcap. Cultivated members of this
family include many herbs grown for cooking or for their fragrance,
such as basil, peppermint, oregano, and lavender.
The genus name Lamium refers to some nettle-like plant of
unknown identity mentioned in the encyclopedia written by the Roman
naturalist Pliny the Elder, who lived about A.D. 23-79. The
plant might, in fact, have been a member of the genus, but we do not
know for sure. The species name means "purple." I find
the common name puzzling. "Purple" is obvious enough,
referring to the flowers, or possibly to the tinge of the leaves.
The "nettle" in the name presumably refers to the fact that the
plant does bear some resemblance to a very miniature nettle. I
do not know what the "dead" in the name means, but my guess is that
it refers to the fact that the plant has no sting like stinging
nettles, thus being a harmless or dead nettle. Another common
name for the plant is purple archangel, but I cannot even guess
where that name comes from. If anyone knows, or has any
theory, I would love to hear.
Although purple dead nettle is an alien weed, it does not appear
to be a threat to native plants, since it seems confined to
disturbed places. It is a pretty little plant, and one must
admire it for its toughness. In Wildwood it can be seen along
the bikepath and Wildwood Drive, and in other areas disturbed by the
improvements we have made in the Park. Look for it, too, in your own
backyard and in alleys and on roadsides.
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