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Lamium purpureum

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Red dead-nettle
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Lamium
Species:
L. purpureum
Binomial name
Lamium purpureum

Lamium purpureum, known as red dead-nettle,[1] purple dead-nettle, or purple archangel,[2] is an annual herbaceous flowering plant native to Europe and Asia but it can also be found in North America.

Description

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Lamium purpureum grows with square stems to 5–20 cm [3](rarely 30 cm) in height. The leaves have fine hairs, are green at the bottom and shade to purplish at the top; they are 2–4 cm 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 corolla shows a line of hairs near the base of the tube.[3] They may be produced throughout the year, including mild weather in winter. This allows bees to gather its 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 of the plant is crimson red in colour and thus very noticeable on the heads of the bees that visit its flowers.[4][5]

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.[3]

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, Lamiaceae, not the nettle family Urticaceae, the "dead" in the name "dead-nettle" referring to the inability of Lamium species to sting.

Edibility

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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.[6]

Folk medicinal uses

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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 [wið ˈfæːrˌsti.t͡ʃe] (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.[7]

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.[8]

Habitat

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Frequent in meadows, forest edges, roadsides and gardens.[3]

Distribution

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Lamium purpureum is a common weed in the western and eastern United States,[9] Canada, Ireland, and the British Isles.[10]

Biochemistry

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The essential oil is characterized by its high contents of germacrene D.[11] 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.[12]

The plant contains phenylethanoid glycosides named lamiusides A, B, C, D and E.[13] It possesses a flavonol 3-O-glucoside-6″-O-malonyltransferase.[14]

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References

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  1. ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. ^ Martin, W. Keble, 1965. The Concise British Flora in Colour. George Rainbird Limited.
  3. ^ a b c d Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-185918-4783
  4. ^ Dorothy Hodges (1952). The pollen loads of the honeybee. Bee Research Association Ltd., London.
  5. ^ https://michaelqpowell.com/2020/05/04/red-pollen/ Retrieved at 14.57 on Thursday 22/8/24.
  6. ^ "Purple Deadnettle: Pictures, Flowers, Leaves & Identification | Lamium purpureum". www.ediblewildfood.com. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  7. ^ Pollington, Stephen (2000). Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healing. Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 978-1-898281-47-4.
  8. ^ "Wildcrafting Purple Dead Nettle For Food And Medicine". www.outdoorapothecary.com. 23 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  9. ^ Whitson, Tom (2000). Weeds of the West. Newark, CA: Western Society of Weed Science in cooperation with the Western United States Land Grant Universities Cooperative Extension Services. ISBN 9780788149269.
  10. ^ Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-04656-4
  11. ^ Flamini, G.; Cioni, P. L.; Morelli, I. (2005). "Composition of the essential oils and in vivo emission of volatiles of four Lamium species from Italy: L. Purpureum, L. Hybridum, L. Bifidum and L. Amplexicaule". Food Chemistry. 91: 63–68. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2004.05.047.
  12. ^ Mikolajczak, KL; Rogers, MF; Smith Cr, Jun; Wolff, IA (1967). "An octadecatrienoic acid from Lamium purpureum L. Seed oil containing 5,6-allenic and trans-16-olefinic unsaturation". Biochemical Journal. 105 (3): 1245–1249. doi:10.1042/bj1051245. PMC 1198447. PMID 16742552.
  13. ^ Ito, N.; Nihei, T.; Kakuda, R.; Yaoita, Y.; Kikuchi, M. (2006). "Five new phenylethanoid glycosides from the whole plants of Lamium purpureum L". Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin. 54 (12): 1705–1708. doi:10.1248/cpb.54.1705. PMID 17139106.
  14. ^ Suzuki, H. (2004). "CDNA cloning and functional characterization of flavonol 3-O-glucoside-6"-O-malonyltransferases from flowers of Verbena hybrida and Lamium purpureum". Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic. 28 (2–3): 87–93. doi:10.1016/j.molcatb.2004.01.005.
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