''Lamium album'', commonly called white dead-nettle, is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil (herb), ba ...

. It is native throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, growing in a variety of habitats from open

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

to woodland, generally on moist, fertile

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

Description

''Lamium album'' is a

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

herbaceous

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

plant growing to tall, with green, four-angled stems. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are long and broad, triangular with a rounded base, softly hairy, and with a serrated margin and a petiole up to long; like many other members of the Lamiaceae, they appear superficially similar to those of the stinging nettle ''

Urtica dioica ''Urtica dioica'', often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting) or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. Or ...

'' but do not sting, hence the common name "dead-nettle". The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are white, produced in whorls ('verticillasters') on the upper part of the stem, the individual flowers long.

Phytochemistry

Various polyphenolic glycosides such as Lamalboside and

Verbascoside Verbascoside is a polyphenol glycoside in which the phenylpropanoid caffeic acid and the phenylethanoid hydroxytyrosol form an ester and an ether bond respectively, to the rhamnose part of a disaccharide, namely β-(3′,4′-dihydroxyphenyl)ethyl ...

, Tiliroside and 5-caffeoylquinic acid along with Rutoside and quercetin 3-O-glucoside and

kaempferol 3-O-glucoside Astragalin is a chemical compound. It can be isolated from ''Phytolacca americana'' (the American pokeweed) or in the methanolic extract of fronds of the fern ''Phegopteris connectilis''. It is also found in wine. Astragalin is a 3-''O''-glucosi ...

can be isolated from the flowers of ''L. album''. The plant also contains the

iridoid Iridoids are a type of monoterpenoids in the general form of cyclopentanopyran, found in a wide variety of plants and some animals. They are biosynthetically derived from 8-oxogeranial. Iridoids are typically found in plants as glycosides, mo ...

glycosides lamalbid, alboside A and B, and caryoptoside as well as the hemiterpene glucoside hemialboside. ''L.album'' was a source of chlorophyll and other plant pigments for

Mikhail Tsvet Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet, also spelt Tsvett, Tswett, Tswet, Zwet, and Cvet (Russian: Михаил Семёнович Цвет; 14 May 1872 – 26 June 1919) was a Russian-Italian botanist who invented chromatography. His last name is Russian fo ...

, the inventor of adsorption chromatography.

Taxonomy

''Lamium album'' was described and named by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1753.

Distribution and habitat

''L. album'' is native to Eurasia, from Ireland in the west to Japan in the east. It has three subspecies, subsp. ''album'' in the western part of the range, subsp. ''crinitum'' in the southern part in southwest Asia (Turkey to Nepal), and subsp. ''barbatum'' in the far east of mainland Asia and in Japan. It is common in England, rare in the west and northern Scotland, and introduced to eastern Ireland. It is abundant in the British Isles, where it is found on roadsides, around hedges, and in abandoned places. ''L. album'' was introduced to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, where it is widely

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

Ecology

The flowers are visited by many types of insects, but mostly by long-tongued insects, like bees.

Bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

s are especially attracted to the flowers, which are a good source of early nectar and pollen, hence the plant is sometimes called the bee nettle.

Uses

The young shoots and leaves can be cooked as a vegetable.

Cultural significance

A distillation of the flowers is reputed "to make the heart merry, to make a good colour in the face, and to make the vital spirits more fresh and lively."

Notes

External links

Flora Europaea: ''Lamium album''

Plants for a Future: ''Lamium album''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q157626

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Flora of Europe Flora of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus