Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Purple dead nettle

PURPLE DEAD NETTLE

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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