PURPLE DEAD NETTLE
File Size: 37 KB
 
Lamium purpureum  L.  var. purpureum 
Jefferson County, Kansas
Annual
Height: 3-12 inches
Family: Lamiaceae - Mint Family
Flowering Period:   April, May
Stems: 1 or few, decumbent at base to nearly erect above, often purplish, inconspicuously hairy or glabrous, frequently branched at base.
Leaves: Opposite, mostly heart-shaped, .4 to 1.6 inch long, nearly as wide, deep green or purplish tinged; surface coarse-hairy; margins with shallow, rounded teeth; stalk .2 to 1.6 inch long; base heart-shaped, nearly straight across, or rounded; tip blunt or rounded, rarely pointed; lowermost leaves smaller, somewhat egg-shaped or nearly round.
Inflorescences: Spike of whorl-like clusters, .8 to 2.8 inches long, in axils of leaf-like bracts; each cluster 2-3-flowered; bracts mostly egg-shaped, usually longer than wide, only slightly reduced above; stalks 1/8 to 1.2 inch long; bases heart-shaped to wedge-shaped; tips pointed to blunt.
Flowers: Sessile; calyx tubular to narrowly bell-shaped, 1/5 to 1/4 inch long, glabrous or sparsely hairy, 5-lobed; lobes unequal, tips bristle-like; corolla 2-lipped, 2/5 to 4/5 inch long, purple or pinkish-purple, outside sparsely pubescent, inside glabrous; upper lip entire, erect, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long; lower lip spreading, less than 1/10 inch long; stamens 4, ascending under upper lip.
Fruits: Nutlet, nearly egg-shaped, around 1/12 inch long, 3-angled, smooth, olive or brownish-gray, often white-spotted.
Habitat: Disturbed shaded areas, stream banks, ditches, pastures, roadsides, lawns, fields, gardens, waste places.
Distribution: East 1/3 of Kansas
Origin: Introduced and naturalized. Native of Eurasia.
Comments: Weedy. Less common than henbit, Lamium amplexicaule.

Purple dead nettle
66 KB
Johnson Count, Kansas
Purple dead nettle
53 KB
Johnson Count, Kansas
Purple dead nettle
139 KB
Jefferson County, Kansas
Purple dead nettle leaves
49 KB
Jefferson County, Kansas
Purple dead nettle and henbit
127 KB
Jefferson County, Kansas