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White Dead-Nettle

White Dead-Nettle

Lamium album

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How common: Very common

Alien species

White dead-nettle is a perennial wayside plant that looks like a nettle but does not sting. It has upright stems with paired, toothed, dark green leaves. In summer it shows rings of white, hooded flowers around the stem. You can spot it in yards, gardens, along roadsides and on waste ground.

Did you know?

  • Its name “dead-nettle” hints that, unlike true nettles, it has no stinging hairs.
  • Ants often carry its seeds away because of a small tasty attachment on them.

About the species

Identification

Upright, long-lived plant 20–80 cm tall with a firm, square stem. Leaves grow in pairs; they are dark green, heart- to oval-shaped with big teeth, the upper ones long-pointed. White flowers about 2–2.5 cm long stand in tight rings at the leaf joints; each flower has a curved hood and a wide lower lip. After flowering it makes four small hard seeds that ants often carry away. Easy to confuse with stinging nettle, but it lacks stinging hairs and has showy white flower rings; its stem is softer and snaps more easily. Flowers in Finland from May to September.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides

Flowering

May–Sep

About the habitat

Grows in nutrient-rich, disturbed places such as gardens, meadows, thickets, roadsides and waste ground, in sun to partial shade. Common in southern Finland, rare farther north.

Sources

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamium album 2 RF.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39467

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39467

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkopeippi

See also