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White Deadnettle (Lamium album) is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native throughout Europe and western Asia, growing in a variety of habitats from open grassland to woodland, generally on moist, fertile soils

Growth Of The Plant[]

It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 50-100 cm tall, with green, four-angled stems. The leaves are 3-8 cm long and 2-5 cm broad, triangular with a rounded base, softly hairy, and with a serrated margin and a petiole up to 5 cm long; like many other members of the Lamiaceae, they appear superficially similar to those of the Stinging nettle Urtica dioica but do not sting, hence the common name "dead nettle". The flowers are white, produced in whorls ('verticillasters') on the upper part of the stem, the individual flowers 1.5-2.5 cm long.

Cultivation and uses[]

The young leaves are edible, and can be used in salads or cooked as a vegetable. The plant is also used in herbal medicine, for example as a dermatological remedy.

Bees are attracted to the flowers which contain nectar or pollen, hence the plant is sometimes called the Bee Nettle.

It was introduced to North America, where it is widely naturalised.

Description[]

Lamium album is a perennial which grows up to 50cm in height, with a richly-branched, slender rhizome and erect, unbranched, hairy stems which are often violet and swollen at the base. The leaves are opposite, the lower ones long-stalked and the upper short-stalked. They are oval in shape, with either a heart-shaped indentation or rounded at the stalk, pointed at the tip, and with coarsely-toothed margins. Clusters of sessile flowers grow from the axils of the upper leaves, and they have a bell-like, half-opened calyx divided into five tapering teeth, and a symmetrical, white or yellowish two-lipped corolla with a curved tube. Inside the corolla are two long and two short stamens with dark brown anthers. The superior ovary has two compartments with two seeds in each, which develop into black nutlets. The plant flowers in early spring and summer. It grows in woods, ditches, hedges and disturbed ground on lowlands and uplands. It is unrelated to the stinging nettle, Urtica dioica.

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