Lamium purpureum

 ( Purpureum ) 

Lamium purpureum (from Latin purpureum – purple), known as red dead-nettle, purple dead-nettle, or purple archangel,Martin, W. Keble, 1965. The Concise British Flora in Colour. George Rainbird Limited. is an annual herbaceous flowering plant. It is native to Eurasia but can also be found in North America.

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Description Lamium purpureum grows with square stems to ,Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. rarely 40 cm, in height.

Tiffany Francis-Baker (2025). 9781472984746, Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472984746

The leaves have fine Trichome, are green at the bottom and shade to purplish at the top; they are long and broad, with a 1–2 cm petiole (leaf stalk), and wavy to serrated margins.

The zygomorphic flowers are bright red-purple, with a top hood-like petal, two lower lip petal lobes and minute fang-like lobes between. The Petal shows a line of hairs near the base of the tube. They may be produced throughout the year, including mild weather in winter.

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Phytochemistry The essential oil is characterized by its high contents of germacrene D. 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.

The plant contains phenylethanoid glycosides named lamiusides A, B, C, D and E. It possesses a flavonol 3-O-glucoside-6″-O-malonyltransferase.

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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.

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.

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Taxonomy

Lamium purpureum was described and named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It is the type species of genus Lamium.

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Distribution and habitat

Lamium purpureum is native to Europe and Asia but it can also be found in North America.

It is common in the western and eastern United States,

Tom Whitson (2025). 9780788149269, Western Society of Weed Science in cooperation with the Western United States Land Grant Universities Cooperative Extension Services.. ISBN 9780788149269

Canada, Ireland, and Britain.Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. It frequently occurs in meadows, forest edges, roadsides and gardens.

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Ecology

The year-round flowers allow 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. The pollen is crimson red in colour and thus very noticeable on the heads of the bees that visit its flowers. Retrieved at 14.57 on Thursday 22 August 2024.

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Uses

Young plants have edible tops and leaves, used in salads or in stir-fry as a spring vegetable. If finely chopped it can also be used in sauces. The flowers can be crystallized using sugar and egg white.

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 (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 Plantago) 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.

Stephen Pollington (2025). 9781898281474, Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 9781898281474

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. Studies show a strong antioxidant effect.

==Gallery==

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United Kingdom]]

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Bibliography

• (1989). 9789004091092, E. J. Brill. . ISBN 9789004091092

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External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment
• USDA Plants Profile
• Photo gallery
• Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland information for Lamium purpureum L.

Categories: Purpureum, Flora Of Europe, Flora Of Asia, Plants Described In 1753, Taxa Named By Carl Linnaeus

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