Northern Red Dead-nettle, Göteborg, November 13th, 2002

Lamium moluccellifolium Mellanrödplister i oktober, i januari, i juni Eva Ekeblad, 2002

Confounding Red Deadnettles.

Names, names, names.

The purpureum IS red
and the amplexicaule
has leaves clasping the stem

but the hybridum
is no hybrid
and the confertum
not really an S-weed

So

does the moluccellifolium
have leaves like a Moluccella?
The way the Web shows me
the Moluccella laevis,
Bells of Ireland
- which has nothing but the name to do with Ireland
and does not stem from the Moluccan Islands -
I am first baffled by the spire
of leafy bracts
forming green bells
as shown at Horticopia or Flower Auction Japan
but then I find a picture of the basal leaves at the University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science (on a page that takes ages to load).

There is a likeness.

  and   Henbit Dead-nettle

Lamium amplexicaule
Mjukplister i december, i februari,
i maj och i juli


Today's sample of L. amplexicauleis from the same spot as the one in the february page. The december page also presents L. hybridum and L. purpureum - those were all from the same patch, the only red Lamium among the S-weeds missing there and then was the L. moluccellifolium. Grass now rules in that place, and I haven't seen any hybridum for a long time. And no purpureum since September. I'll probably find some tomorrow...