White Dead-nettle, Lamium album

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White Deadnettle, Lamium album

White Dead-nettle, Lamium album

One of the highlights of this cold, late spring has been the profusion of Dead-nettle flowers, first Red (Lamium purpureum) and now White (Lamium album). These may just be common wild flowers – weeds to the less enlightened – but they raise my spirits nonetheless.

I wrote about the Red Dead-nettle back in 2012. The White Dead-nettle, Lamium album, is its perennial cousin: in the same genus (Lamium) and family (Lamiaceae (Note 1)). The Red Dead-nettle is an annual; White Dead-nettle is a hardy perennial which stays green over winter and spreads by seed and by its rhizomatous stolons (rooting stems that run horizontally underground).

The White Dead-nettle is very common in the British Isles, apart from the far north and west of Scotland and western Ireland. It grows in secondary woodland, on hedge-banks and roadsides and disturbed ground, including on the rougher edges of my allotment. Plantlife give it a status of “Green – Least concern”.

White Dead-nettles often grow near human habitation, in the same fertile soils as the Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica). Although they often grow amongst Stinging Nettles and their leaves have a similar shape to Stinging Nettle leaves, White Dead-nettles have lighter green, softer leaves, square stems, a distinctive smell and, crucially, whorls of white flowers with hairy upper hoods and toothed lower lips (note 2). Flowers are produced from March until as late as December, peaking in April and May. The flowers’ anthers are a beautiful black and gold but you have to peer into the flower to see them. They lie side by side like two human figures, Adam and Eve, hence the plant’s alternative name of Adam-and-Eve-in-the-bower. Other English names include Helmet-flower (from the flower shape), Blind Nettle, Dumb Nettle and Deaf Nettle (because of the lack of stings) and White Archangel (note 3).

Lamium album grows right across Eurasia as far east as Japan. The European subspecies is subspecies album and subspecies barbatum is found in the far east of mainland Asia and in Japan. In the British Isles it is considered to be an archaeophyte (introduced by humans prior to 1500).  The BSBI classes it as a denizen: “having the appearance of being native (i.e. fully naturalised) but with some suspicion of having been originally introduced“. It has been introduced to the United States, where it is widely naturalised.

The White Dead-nettle is a good wildlife plant. It is sometimes known as the Bee Nettle as its flowers attract heavier, larger bees, especially Bombus pascuroum, the Common Carder Bee. Hairy-footed Flower Bees (Anthophora plumipes) also visit to collect both pollen (females only) and nectar.

Bombus pascuorum

Male Bombus pascuorum on White Dead-nettle. Photo credit: Vanna Bartlett.

Anthophora plumipes female

A female Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes, visiting White Dead-nettle. Photo credit: Vanna Bartlett.

If you live in southern Britain have a look out for the attractive Pied Shieldbug, Tritomegas bicolor, which feeds at the base and on the aerial parts of the plant. We often find it in large numbers of it on our allotment in spring, on Black Horehound (Ballota nigra) and on Red Dead-nettles as well as White.

Pied Shieldbug

Pied Shieldbug, Tritomegas bicolor, on White Dead-nettle. Photo credit: Vanna Bartlett.

The Green Tortoise Beetle, Cassida viridis, also feeds on White Dead-nettle and its relatives, as do the caterpillars of several species of moths, including the Burnished Brass and Speckled Yellow. (The “Field Guide to the Caterpillars of Great Britain and Ireland” lists fifteen species of moth whose foodplant is White Deadnettle.)

The leaves and flowers White Dead-nettles are edible and pleasant – don’t be put off by the hairiness of the leaves. I sometimes add a few young leaves to a mixed salad, or nibble at a leaf when I visit the allotment, but there are a lot more possibilities.

Young leaves and stem tips can be boiled and eaten as a vegetable, and the leaves can be cooked like spinach or chopped and added to omelettes. Flowers can be candied or used to make wine. The Eatweeds website has recipes for a White Dead-nettle Frittata and a White Dead-nettle, Feta and Watermelon Salad. The Plants for a Future website recommends adding the leaves to salads and says that “a pleasant herb tea is made from the flowers“. The leaves contain good quantities of vitamins A and C, calcium and phosphorus.

The herbalist Nicholas Culpeper (1616 – 1654) thought that the White Dead-nettle “makes the head merry, drives away melancholy, quickens the spirits, is good against quartan agues, stancheth bleeding at the mouth and nose.” (You can read his full description on The Complete Herbal website.)

The Eatweeds website and Plants For A Future list a number of medicinal uses for White Dead-nettles. These include treatment of menstrual problems such as heavy painful periods, kidney and bladder complaints, and use as a soothing lotion for the eyes or to treat piles and varicose veins. (The usual wise words apply: “Always seek advice from a professional before using a plant medicinally.“) The Eldrum Tree website also suggests some more mystical uses for the plant.

White Dead-nettles are normally so abundant that picking the leaves and flowers from the wild will have no ill effect. They make a pretty and long lasting cut flower (especially if you remove some leaves to reveal the flowers) and an attractive garden plant, though they may come to visit your garden without an invitation and decide to stay.

So far, I have just one plant in a large pot in the back garden as an attractant for bees, but I allow some large patches to grow at the edges of the allotment. Unwanted plants are easy to dig out with a hand fork or, when very established, a garden fork. The plant does well as ground cover in sunshine or light shade, and thrives in full sun on more fertile soils, including light ones like on my allotment.

If you want to grow Lamium album but can’t source it from a fellow gardener, it is possible to buy plug plants from a variety of places, including Naturescape and Landline Wildflowers.

In recent years several scientific papers have explored the biochemical properties of White Dead-nettles. These include “Revealing the reviving secret of the white dead nettle (Lamium album L.)” (note 4) and “A review on biological effects of Lamium album (white dead nettle) and its components” (note 5). Extracts from Lamium album have been shown to have antiviral, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, cytoprotective, wound healing and antidiabetic effects.

The BGFlora.eu website lists several of the phytochemicals in Lamium album.

The plant was also a favourite source of chlorophyll and other plant pigments for Mikhail Tsvet, (1872 – 1919), the inventor of chromatography.

If you don’t have your own laboratory, simpler pastimes are available.

Flora Britannica records that country children sucked the nectar from the base of the flowers, and that “boys used to pick the flowers off dead nettles and chase the girls pretending they were real stinging nettles” (note 5). Who needs a Playstation?

Notes

Note 1 – I have also written about other members of the Lamiaceae (Mint family), including Water Mint, Ground Ivy, Rosemary, Wild Clary, Balm-leaved Archangel and various Sages (Salvia), including Salvia ‘Hot Lips’. It is one of my favourite families of plants, with 236 genera and around 7000 species worldwide.

Note 2 – A picture paints a thousand words, so as usual I recommend a look at the superb Wild Flower Finder website for photos.

Note 3 – “Archangel” is an alternative name for dead-nettles, possibly given because the plants don’t sting. Another alternative suggestion is that the plants come into flower around the day dedicated to Archangel Michael (8th May in the Roman Catholic church).

Note 4 – Yordanova, Z.P., Zhiponova, M.K., Iakimova, E.T. et al. “Revealing the reviving secret of the white dead nettle (Lamium album L.)”. Phytochem Rev 13, 375–389 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-014-9356-2. (Only an abstract is available to the general public.)

Note 5 – Pourmirzaee, T., Abedinzade, M. and Ghorbani, A. “A review on biological effects of Lamium album (white dead nettle) and its components.” Journal of Herbmed Pharmacology 8(3), 185-193 (2019). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334486062_A_review_on_biological_effects_of_Lamium_album_white_dead_nettle_and_its_components. (A PDF is available to download. I wish all scientific papers were as easy to access.)

Note 5 – Richard Mabey (1996): “Flora Britannica“, Sinclair-Stevenson, London. page 314.

Three-cornered Garlic, Allium triquetrum and Few-flowered Garlic, Allium paradoxum

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The genus Allium contains some of my favourite plants. I have previously written about several of them, including Wild Garlic, Garlic Chives and Babington’s Leek. They enhance gardens with their shapely flowers and few meals are complete without at least one domesticated Allium: leeks, onions, shallots and garlic.

At the moment two species of Allium are in flower here in Norwich, and in many other places in the British Isles: the Three-cornered Garlic (a.k.a. Three-cornered Leek), Allium triquetrum and the Few-flowered Garlic (a.k.a.Few-flowered Leek), Allium paradoxum. I’m going to write about both of them, as they are often confused with each other.

Like all of the genus Allium they are members of the family Amaryllidaceae.

Both species have white flowers in spring and leaves that have a mild garlic smell when crushed. Both are edible. Both were introduced to the British Isles and really like it here, to the extent that they are are now listed in Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales, which means that it is an offence to plant or otherwise cause them to grow in the wild.

Three-cornered Garlic, Allium triquetrum

Three-cornered Garlic, Allium triquetrum, growing by the pavement on Unthank Road, Norwich, late March 2020.

Three-corned Garlic, Allium triquetrum

I first noticed Three-corned Garlic, Allium triquetrum, on a trip to Mallorca in March 2004. We spent a very enjoyable day at the famous S’Albufera nature reserve, mainly looking at the rich variety of birds that are found there.

At one point we walked through some woods on the reserve and entered a lovely sea of white flowers. They reminded me of Bluebells but smelt of garlic. What were they? I looked them up in Dr. Elspeth Beckett’s “Illustrated Flora of Mallorca”, which I had just bought at the shop at the Santuari de Lluc (Lluc Sanctuary), and there they were, on Plate 79.

Allium triquetrum is native to south-western Europe (including Mallorca, where it is “common, especially near streams”), north-western Africa, Madeira and the Canary Islands. It has been introduced into Britain, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, the United States (California and Oregon), parts of South America. In Australia it is known as Onion weed or Angled Onion and is becoming a problem in the Yarra Ranges (near Melbourne).

Three-corned Garlic was being cultivated in Britain by 1759 and established itself in the wild by 1849, initially in Guernsey. Since then it has thoroughly naturalised and is becoming increasingly common. It does best in milder areas, as it is not completely hardy in very cold winters. It grows on roadsides, in hedge banks, on field margins and in rough and waste ground.

Here in Norwich, there is a lot of Three-corned Garlic in a garden on Unthank Road, between Park Lane and the city centre, and the plants (such as in my photograph above) have escaped into cracks in the pavement. I also grow it in our garden, where it gently spreading in the dry, rather sandy soil. It has been here for eight years and hasn’t been a problem (yet) – possibly because I hardly have any bare soil for it to seed into.

Three-corned Garlic grows from a bulb. Its leaves can be found from late autumn onwards and it flowers in early spring – the exact timing depends on weather conditions and in some areas it is a very early flowerer. Here in Norwich it was in full flower in late March in last year’s warm spring; this year it is several weeks later. After flowering it dies back (like Wild Garlic) and is dormant through the summer and autumn.

Allium triquetrum spreads in two ways: from bulbils that form underground next to the parent plant and from seeds, which are dispersed by ants (note 1).

Allium triquetrum has a diagnostic green stripe on the inside of its flowers.

Unlike Allium paradoxum, Allium triquetrum does not form clumps of bulbils in its flower heads. This means that it can be controlled – eventually – by cutting back. A quicker result can be obtained by digging out the bulbs, very carefully, with a hand fork. (Don’t add them to the compost heap.)

Allium triquetrum

Look at those stripes! Allium triquetrum (photographed in our garden today).

The Wildflower Finder website, as usual, has a series of excellent photographs of the plant, as does Mike Crew’s online Flora of East Anglia.

Few-flowered Garlic, Allium paradoxum

Few-flowered Garlic, Allium paradoxum, also grows in Norwich. There are small patches of it in Earlham Cemetery and large swathes of it in the Rosary Cemetery, where it has occupied a whole hillside beneath the trees.

Allium paradoxum

Few-flowered Leek, Allium paradoxum, in Rosary Cemetery in Norwich (photographed in April 2018).

Allium paradoxum is native of mountainous regions of Iran, the Caucasus and Turkmenistan but was introduced into Britain in 1823 and had escaped into the wild – near Edinburgh – by 1863. It can be very invasive in disturbed habitats and, like Allium triquetrum, is becoming increasingly common, though with a bias towards the east of the country.  Preferred habitats are river-banks, roadsides, field margins, rough and waste ground and woodland.

Like Allium triquetrum, Allium paradoxum emerges from bulbs from late winter and flowers in spring and dies down after flowering. Its long, linear grass-like leaves are longer and narrower than those of Wild Garlic, but wider than those of Three-corned Garlic.

Like Three-corned Garlic, Few-flowered Garlic spreads by bulbils that form underground next to the parent plant. But it also has a cluster of bulbils in every flower head. These make contact with the ground as the plant dies back and will form new plants. Cutting the plant while it is flowering will cause the bulbils to drop to the ground even sooner, so if you need to remove it or limit its spread, it is best to dig plants out carefully with a hand fork and then crush and dessicate them, as recommended by Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden.

I don’t grow Allium paradoxum and would hesitate to do so, even though it is a pretty plant.

Few-flowered Garlic, Allium paradoxum

Few-flowered Garlic, Allium paradoxum, in close up, showing its bulbils.

As with Allium triquetrum, I recommend a look at the Wildflower Finder website and Mike Crew’s online Flora of East Anglia for more pictures.

Edible Weeds

Both Three-cornered Garlic and Few-flowered Garlic are good edible plants, with a mild garlic taste.

If you grow Three-cornered Garlic, Wild Food UK suggests uprooting some young plants to use like baby leeks or spring onions and the Plants for a Future website says that bulbs dug up in in early summer after the plant has died down will store for at least six months.

The leaves and flowers of Three-cornered Garlic can be used in salads or the leaves in soups or stews and the more mature bulbs can be used as onion or garlic. The flowers make a good decoration in a salad. I have eaten both flowers and leaves raw. Alys Fowler (“The Thrifty Forager“, Kyle Books, 2011) particularly likes the flowers.

Three-cornered Garlic contains a number of sulphur compounds, such as methiin. These may help to control blood cholesterol.

This Permaculture article has more information on Three-cornered Garlic – including how to avoid picking daffodil leaves by accident.

There is less information on Few-flowered Garlic but it can be used in similar ways. Wild Food UK gives it a brief mention and the Plants For A Future website gives similar suggestions to Three-cornered Garlic.

It should be possible to adapt a recipe for Wild Garlic pesto to use Three-cornered Garlic or Few-flowered Garlic, though the taste is likely to be much milder than with Wild Garlic.

As with all wild plants, make sure you’ve identified them correctly and avoid anything growing on a pavement below dog height or by a busy road.

Bon appetit!

Notes

Note 1 – Distribution of seeds by ants is known as myrmecochory. The term comes from the Greek for “circular dance”, though I think it would sound best said with a Northern Irish accent.  Primroses also spread in this way.

Scrubby Scorpion-vetch, Coronilla valentina

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Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca

Scrubby Scorpion-vetch (glaucous form): Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca

At the moment, our front garden is mainly yellow. It’s a very cheerful colour, signifying spring, even today when it is cold with a brisk north-westerly wind and the occasional flurry of sleet.

So far we have the yellow of Euphorbia characias and some yellow Tulips. Our cultivated Broom (Cytisus sp.) will be next, to be followed by Spanish Gorse (Genista hispanica). The other splash of yellow is paler and started to flower around Christmas time, with long pauses in colder weather. It comes from Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca, the glaucous form of Scrubby Scorpion-vetch.

Coronilla valentina (also known as Bastard Senna) is a member of the Fabaceae (the Pea family, which I used to know as the Leguminosae). It is a rather straggly shrub from the Mediterranean area: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France, Algeria, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Libya, Croatia (Dalmatia), Albania, Greece and Turkey. It has been grown in the British Isles as a garden plant since 1569 and has been introduced into parts of the United States and Kenya. It is hardy down to -5 to -10 degrees Celsius, so can grow quite happily in milder parts of the UK in a sunny, sheltered spot in well-drained soil. My plant is in a sunny, south facing spot.

The usual garden form is subspecies glauca, which has bluish-green foliage, as the name suggests. I first saw it growing by the south coast of the Isle of Wight in May 2016; it had probably been in flower for months but still looked good. I returned in May 2019 when it had been given a very drastic prune and wasn’t looking its best. Plants do get woody and leggy after several years and can be replaced with young plants raised from seed or semi-hardwood cuttings.

In a sheltered place, Coronilla valentina is an ideal plant to light up the end of winter. The Frustrated Gardener describes it as “glowing like a candle in the dark“. In his garden in Kent it “laughs in the face of February“. Here in Norfolk, this year’s cold snap in February slowed its flowering but caused it no obvious harm and my four year old plant is flowering more than ever. According to the RHS, it can grow to 1 metre by 1 metre (3 feet by 3 feet). My specimen is about this size but the Isle of Wight specimen was easily twice as tall in its coastal garden. Coronilla valentina doesn’t usually need much, if any pruning (RHS pruning group 1).

The pale lemon-yellow flowers are arranged in crown-like clusters (hence “Coronilla“, meaning crown). They are quite fragrant during the day. The scent reminds me slightly of Broom, but less powerful, but it has also been described as “a sweet peach fragrance“, “Deliciously fragrant, make sure you plant it where you can enjoy its lemon scent as it intensifies in the sun” and “reminiscent of daffodils“.

Hardy’s Plants call it “a veritable bee magnet“. In our garden the flowers attract the occasional bumblebee (Common Carder Bees, Bombus pascuorum) , but once the Euphorbia characias is in flower it is the main attraction for other insects such as flies and solitary bees. Nonetheless, it is still a good plant to grow if you have the right conditions.