White dead-nettle

Lamium album, the white deadnettle, is a perennial herb of the mint family, 20 to 60 cm tall, spreading by rhizomes and forming patches. The square, hollow stems bear opposite, stalked, heart-shaped to triangular leaves with coarsely toothed margins that closely resemble those of the stinging nettle but lack stinging hairs, hence 'deadnettle'. The conspicuous flowers are arranged in dense whorls in the upper leaf axils; each is white, two-lipped, with a hooded upper lip and a broad lower lip, and the anthers beneath the hood are fringed with black hairs. The fruit consists of four small nutlets. Native across Europe and temperate Asia and naturalized in North America, white deadnettle is common on roadsides, hedgebanks, waste ground, and the edges of cultivation, flowering over a long season.