Red Dead-nettle

Like all the dead-nettles, the Red Dead-nettle is a downy aromatic native that has no sting.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Lamium purpureum
Family: 
Mints and Dead-Nettles
Family Latin name: 
LAMIACEAE or LABIATAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants

Species description

Species description

Like all the dead-nettles this downy aromatic native has no sting, and is not related to the stinging nettle. It flowers at all times of the year. The heart-shaped, bluntly toothed, wrinkled, leaves are all stalked. Dead nettles are astringent and styptic, and aid the healing of wounds and control excessive menstrual bleeding. When the roots are boiled in milk the preparation brings out measles. 

The Red Dead-nettle is classed as an archaeophyte plant. This means that it is non-native to Britain but was introduced in 'ancient' times. Generally, this means that this type of plant was introduced prior to 1492 when Columbus arrived in the New World and the widespread transfer of plants between the Americas and the Old World first began. (Link to Wikipedia article on archaeophytes).

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Often aromatic, the members of this large family have square stems, and usually undivided leaves in opposite pairs. The flowers are normally two-lipped and open-mouthed.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.