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Marsh Woundwort

Marsh Woundwort

Stachys palustris

Identify the Marsh Woundwort from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Common

Marsh Woundwort is a tall, pink‑flowered member of the mint family that likes damp, open places. It has square, hairy stems and many narrow, pale green leaves. You can spot it along riverbanks, ditches, meadows and field edges across much of Europe, and it also occurs in parts of Asia and North America.

Did you know?

  • It spreads not only by seed but also by runners whose tips swell into little tubers that can break off and root.
  • On rich soils it can be a troublesome weed, especially in potato and sugar beet fields.

About the species

Identification

Perennial 20–110 cm tall. Stems square and hairy, often with hairs pointing downward. Leaves in pairs up the stem, mostly without stalks; narrow oval, shallowly heart-shaped at the base, finely toothed, pale green and softly hairy. Flowers sit in tight rings in the leaf joints, the lower rings a little apart, forming a dense top cluster. Each flower is pink to rose with white markings, with an upper and a three-lobed lower lip (about 1.2–1.5 cm long). Later it makes four small, hard, shiny brown seeds. Differs from Hedge Woundwort by its narrower, paler, mostly stalkless leaves. Flowers in Finland mainly in July–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

shore

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Open, damp ground such as river and lake shores, wet meadows, ditch and stream banks, and cultivated or waste ground, often on clay soils. Common in southern and central Finland, rarer further north, absent from Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Екатерина Гущина, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6320382485

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39485

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39485

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39485

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltop%C3%A4hk%C3%A4m%C3%B6

See also