Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum

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Red Dead-nettle

Red Dead-nettle – on the allotment

It is spring and Red Dead-nettles (Lamium purpureum) are nearly everywhere – in gardens, in cracks in the pavement and on the allotment. In a mild spring these pretty flowers can start appearing as early as February and they can continue throughout the spring and summer and into autumn.

To many the Red Dead-nettle (also known as Purple Dead-nettle, Badman, Badman’s Posies, Sweet Archangel or Red Archangel) is a rampant weed and it is certainly good at seeding and producing more of its kind on newly weeded soil and other bare ground. It can also carry cucumber mosaic virus and potato leaf-roll virus. A single plant can produce between one and four thousand seeds and evidence of Red Dead-nettle has been found in Bronze Age deposits, so it probably came to Britain with early agriculture, along with other weeds. It has since spread to North America, where it is listed as an invasive species in some areas.

But Red Dead-nettle flowers are very popular with bumblebees when few other flowers are about so I always allow a few plants to grow on the allotment. I find that on my dry, sandy soil Red Dead-nettles don’t cause much trouble as they can be pulled or hoed out very easily and they are never a nuisance. From May onwards a crop of different summer weeds take over and cause far more trouble: Fat Hen, Lesser Bindweed, Gallant Soldier, sowthistles, to name but a few.

Red Dead-nettles in Earlham Cemetery

Red Dead-nettles in Earlham Cemetery, Norwich

Red dead-nettle is a member of family Lamiaceae, which includes sage, mint, thyme and other useful kitchen herbs. It is also edible and is a pleasant addition to spring salads – use the leaves and flowering tops. The leaves can also be steamed, perhaps with some butter added at the end of cooking. Other recipes include bacon and deadnettle strata and springtime fritters.  I sometimes just nibble some leaves when I’m gardening. Red Dead-nettle is also used in herbal medicine for its possible anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, or for treating wounds.

See the Wildflower Finder website for some lovely photos of Red Dead-nettle, much better than the ones on this page.

For a lot more information on Red Deadnettles’ value for wildlife, see Wonder Weeds – Red Deadnettles on my wife’s “Arthropedia” blog.

Caper Spurge, Euphorbia lathyris

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When Grapes Hill Community Garden was built the tarmac that originally covered the site was removed and soil was brought in by truck from a depot on the edge of Mousehold Heath in Norwich. Originally, the soil came from the war memorial site outside Norwich’s City Hall.

With the soil came plants, in the form of roots (Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium, which we fortunately removed in late winter 2011) and seeds. The latter included lots of commoner weeds but also some more interesting exotics, such as Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum), Shoo-Fly Plant (Nicandra physalodes) and Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyrsis).

Caper Spurge, Euphorbia lathyris

Caper Spurge, Euphorbia lathyris, in Grapes Hill Community Garden

I knew that the bold, upright plant with its rigidly arranged leaves with their white midribs was a spurge (Euphorbia) but it was only recently that I confirmed that it was Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyris). It is now starting to flower and, as it is a biennial this will be its last year in the garden. We have option of letting it seed but will probably remove it before then to prevent the garden becoming a forest of its seedlings. The seeds (which look like capers but are very poisonous) are released explosively and are also dispersed by ants (reference). We will need to be careful when removing it, as the toxic, milky sap can cause skin irritation and even serious injury if splashed in the eyes.

Caper Spurge is also known as Mole Plant because it allegedly deters moles where it is planted. Another name is Petroleum Plant because it contains high levels of hydrocarbons, and it has been suggested that it could be used as a petrol substitute if enough of the plant was grown.

Medicinally, Caper Spurge was sometimes used as a violent purgative. Beggars sometimes used the leaves to create unsightly skin sores, which would cause passers by to give them more money out of pity. The excellent Plants For A Future Database lists other uses as well, including the treatment of tumours and snake bites.

There are some good pictures of the plant on the Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide website if you need to identify it. The plant is classed as a naturalised alien in the UK, on roadsides, waste tips and old gardens as well as in open woodland (view UK distribution map). It is sometimes grown in gardens as well.

Thankfully, some rain…

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I do enjoy sunny days but East Anglia has been experiencing a drought since last summer, with an exceptionally dry and warm spring in 2011 followed by a dry autumn and winter and recent weeks of sunshine, warmth and little rain.

So I was very pleased when it started raining yesterday afternoon, just after we finished planting in The Belvedere Centre’s garden.The rain will water in our plants and play a (sadly, small) part in replenishing reservoirs.

Some shoppers in the centre of Norwich this morning were complaining about the wet weather and wishing for sunshine. It is sad to see how out of touch many people are with the natural world. They will be the first to complain when food prices rise due to failed harvests.

The hosepipe ban starts tomorrow and is likely to last all summer, as even with plenty of rain it will take some time for reservoirs to fill up.