LAMIUM PURPUREUM

Family and Genus:- See- LABIATAE

Common Names:- Red dead-nettle

Homotypic Synonyms:- Lamiopsis purpurea

Meaning:- Lamium (Gr) Gullet (reference to the gaping mouth of the corolla).

Purpureum (L) Reddish-purple.

General description:- Pubescent annual.

Stem:-

1) Up to 40(-70) cm.

Leaves:-

1) 10-50 x 10-30 mm, ovate or ovate-orbicular, margins crenate or crenate-serrate.

2) Floral, short petiolate, not amplexicaul, triangular-ovate.

Flowers:-

1) Calyx, 5-7 mm, teeth about as long as the tube.

2) Corolla, 10-18(-23) mm, pinkish-purple.

a) tube, 7-12 mm, straight, exceeding the calyx.

b) upper lip, 4-6 mm, entire.

c) lower lip, c. 2 mm, obcordate.

d) lateral lobes, minute, linear.

3) Anthers, hairy.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, obtusely trigonous, truncate at the apex.

Key features:-

1) Floral leaves, not amplexicaul, longer than wide.

2) Leaves, crenate or crenate-serrate, not decurrent along the petiole.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp meadows, orchards, streambanks and wasteground. 0-

900 (-1600) m.

Distribution:- Common in N &C mainland Greece lacking in the Peloponnis, Ionian

Islands and most of Sterea Ellas. - A widespread and variable Euro-Siberian

species Rare on Crete found mainly in the Lefki Ori area.

Flowering time:- Mar-June.

Photos by:- Yannis Zacharakis