Lamium purpureum

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Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox Lamium purpureum (from Latin Template:Lang Template:Gloss), known as red dead-nettle,<ref name=BSBI07>Template:BSBI 2007</ref> purple dead-nettle, or purple archangel,<ref>Martin, W. Keble, 1965. The Concise British Flora in Colour. George Rainbird Limited.</ref> is an annual herbaceous flowering plant in the mint family (Lamiaceae). It is native to Eurasia but can also be found in North America.

Description

Lamium purpureum grows with square stems to Template:Convert,<ref name="Parnell 12">Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. Template:ISBN</ref> rarely Template:Convert, in height.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The leaves have fine hairs, are green at the bottom and shade to purplish at the top; they are Template:Convert long and broad, with a Template:Convert petiole (leaf stalk), and wavy to serrated margins.

The zygomorphic flowers are bright red-purple, with the five petals fused into a corolla tube with a top hood-like lobe, two lower lip lobes and minute fang-like lobes between. This encloses the four stamens and the single style with its forked stigma. The corolla shows a line of hairs near the base of the tube.<ref name="Parnell 12"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The plant contains phenylethanoid glycosides named lamiusides A, B, C, D and E.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It possesses a flavonol 3-O-glucoside-6″-O-malonyltransferase.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref name="Parnell 12" />

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 in 1753.Template:R It is the type species of genus Lamium.Template:Sfnp

File:Lamium purpureum leaf structure featuring trichomes.tif
Leaf Structure of purple dead-nettle highlighting trichomes. Winston-Salem, North Carolina
File:Stem and Trichome Image of Lamium purpureum.tif
Cross-sectional cut of purple dead-nettle stem featuring trichome structures. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Distribution and habitat

Lamium purpureum is native to Europe and Asia but it can also be found in North America.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

It is common in the western and eastern United States,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Canada, Ireland, and Britain.<ref>Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN</ref> It frequently occurs in meadows, forest edges, roadsides and gardens.<ref name="Parnell 12" />

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 for bees in March/April (in UK), when bees need the pollen as protein to build up their nest.Template:Citation needed The pollen is crimson red in colour and thus very noticeable on the heads of the bees that visit its flowers.<ref name="Hodges">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>https://michaelqpowell.com/2020/05/04/red-pollen/ Retrieved at 14.57 on Thursday 22 August 2024.</ref>

Uses

Young plants have edible tops and leaves, which can be used in salads or stir-fried as a spring vegetable. When finely chopped, they can also be added to sauces.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The flowers can be crystallized using sugar and egg white.<ref name=":0" />

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 Template:IPA (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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Studies show a strong antioxidant effect.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

References

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Bibliography

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