''Lamium purpureum'' (from Latin ''purpureum'' – purple), known as red dead-nettle, purple dead-nettle, or purple archangel, is an annual herbaceous

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 ...

. It is native to Eurasia but can also be found in North America.

Description

''Lamium purpureum'' grows with square stems to ,Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. ''Webb's An Irish Flora.'' Cork University Press. rarely 40 cm, in height. The leaves have fine hairs, are green at the bottom and shade to purplish at the top; they are long and broad, with a 1–2 cm petiole (leaf stalk), and wavy to serrated margins. The

zygomorphic Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts. Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spir ...

flowers are bright red-purple, with a top hood-like petal, two lower lip petal lobes and minute fang-like lobes between. The corolla shows a line of hairs near the base of the tube. They may be produced throughout the year, including mild weather in winter.

Phytochemistry

The essential oil is characterized by its high contents of germacrene D. The seed oil contains 16% of an acid characterized as (−)-octadeca-5,6-trans-16-trienoic acid (trivial name lamenallenic acid). Other unsaturated esters identified by their cleavage products are oleate, linoleate and linolenate. The plant contains phenylethanoid glycosides named lamiusides A, B, C, D and E. It possesses a flavonol 3-O-glucoside-6″-O-malonyltransferase.

Similar species

It is often found alongside henbit dead-nettle (''Lamium amplexicaule''), for which it is easily mistaken, because the two species bear not only similar leaves, but also similar bright purple flowers. They can, however, be distinguished from one another by the form of the leaves on their respective flowering stems: those of red dead-nettle are petiolate, while those of henbit dead-nettle are sessile. Though superficially similar to species of '' Urtica'' (true nettles) in appearance, ''L. purpureum'' is not related to them, the genus '' Lamium'' belonging to the mint family, not the nettle family, the "dead" in the name "dead-nettle" referring to the inability of ''Lamium'' species to sting.

Taxonomy

''Lamium purpureum'' 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. It is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of genus ''Lamium''.

Distribution and habitat

''Lamium purpureum'' is native to Europe and Asia but it can also be found in North America. It is common in the western and eastern United States, Canada, Ireland, and Britain. It frequently occurs in meadows, forest edges, roadsides and gardens.

Ecology

The year-round flowers allow bees to gather their nectar for food when few other nectar sources are available. It is also a prominent source of

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

for bees in March/April (in UK), when bees need the pollen as protein to build up their nest. The pollen is crimson red in colour and thus very noticeable on the heads of the bees that visit its flowers.

Uses

Young plants have edible tops and leaves, used in salads or in stir-fry as a spring vegetable. If finely chopped it can also be used in sauces. The flowers can be crystallized using sugar and egg white. The herb has a venerable pedigree in the folk medicine of England, featuring as it does as one of three medicinal/symbolic plants called for in the Anglo-Saxon herb charm Wið færstice (meaning 'against a sudden/violent stabbing pain'). The charm in question (dating, according to scholarly consensus, probably from the late ninth century) calls for the three herbs involved (the other two being feverfew and plantain) to be heated in butter to prepare an ointment, which is then rubbed on the site of the pain with the blade of a knife, while the lengthy charm is recited by the folk practitioner, who thereby aligns herself (or himself) with the patient – in contradistinction to the evil supernatural beings believed to have caused the pain with their magical arrows. To this day, herbalists use red dead-nettle in many herbal remedies. One of these is a salve prepared from the plant which can be used topically to soothe irritated, itchy, or sore skin. Studies show a strong antioxidant effect.

Gallery

File:Illustration Lamium purpureum0.jpg, 1885 illustration File:Hoja SVG (Lamium purpureum).svg, Leaf detail File:Red Dead nettle close 700.jpg,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

,
United Kingdom File:Lamium purpureum in the spring2.jpg, Vancouver Island,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada File:Lamium purpureum (red dead-nettle) in Ohio, United States.jpg, Valley View, Ohio, US File:Red Dead-nettle, Calhoun, Georgia, USA, 26 March 2018.jpg, Calhoun, Georgia File:Field of red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum).jpg, Field in Ohio, US

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Jepson Manual Treatment

USDA Plants Profile

Photo gallery

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland information for ''Lamium purpureum'' L.
{{Use dmy dates, date=December 2024 purpureum Flora of Europe Flora of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus