Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

HENBIT

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Lamium amplexicaule L.

Riley County, Kansas

Annual or biennial

Height: 4-14 inches

Family: Lamiaceae - Mint Family

Flowering Period: March, April, May

Stems:

Decumbent, branched at base; branches ascending, slender, 4-angled (square), inconspicuously hairy or nearly glabrous, often streaked with purple.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple, circular to egg-shaped, 1/5 to 3/5 inch long, usually as wide as long, 3-lobed or not, sometimes purplish in coloration, pubescent; margins with rounded teeth; tip blunt to rounded; lower leaf stalks to 1.4 inch long; upper leaves subtending flower clusters, sessile or clasping, 3/5 to 1 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Whorl-like clusters, few, generally well spaced, 3-6-flowered, in axils of bracts; bracts leaf-like, rarely 3-lobed, generally wider than long, sessile and clasping.

Flowers:

Calyx tubular, 1/5 to 1/3 inch long, 5-lobed, densely soft-hairy; lobes narrow, erect; corolla 2-lipped, 2/5 to 4/5 inch long, pinkish-purple, upper lip often darker, pubescent outside, glabrous inside; tube straight, 2/5 to 3/5 inch long; upper lip entire to slightly notched, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long; lower lip heart-shaped, to 1/10 inch long; stamens 4; small non-opening, self-pollinating flowers produced in fall, white-hairy.

Fruits:

Nutlets, 4, egg-shaped, 3-angled, smooth, tan to olive, each 1-seeded.

Habitat:

Waste areas, lawns, cropland, and roadsides; moist, fertile soils.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Origin:

Introduced from Europe and now naturalized. It is thought to have arrived in the United States via lawn seed during the 1920's.

Uses:

The seeds are consumed by some species of birds.

Comments:

This common weed can be problematic in lawns. Henbit can grow under shrubs where grass will not. See related purple dead nettle, Lamium purpureum.