Lamium maculatum (spotted dead-nettle)

Europe to China; introduced in Great Britain and New Zealand; found growing as a garden escape in Canada and the USA. Spotted dead-nettle has been found up to 2,000 m above sea level.

Lamium maculatum (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Spotted dead-nettle is a perennial herb with creeping stems (but with distal parts upright), and is mostly hairy. The leaves have petioles (leaf stalks) that are shorter than the blades. The leaf blades are heart-shaped to ovate or ovate-oblong, and the margins are usually coarsely scalloped to toothed; the upper and lower surfaces are hairy, the upper surface often with a white band and a few blotches either side, especially in winter. The calyx is tubular, with five narrowly triangular teeth. The corolla is purple, rarely white with dark purple markings. The upper lip is arched, and the lower lip is about as long as the upper lip and at right angles to it. The stamens (male parts) are held in the upper lip and bear orange pollen. The fruit comprises four brown nutlets (one-seeded sections, or mericarps, of the fruit).

Spotted dead-nettle makes an attractive addition to herbaceous borders or woodland gardens, and is a useful ground cover species.

Spotted dead-nettle can be seen growing in the Queen’s Garden, adjacent to Kew Palace and in the Order Beds at Kew.

Pressed and dried specimens of Lamium maculatum are held in the Herbarium at Kew, where they are made available by appointment to researchers from around the world. The details, including an image, of one of these specimens can be seen on-line in the Herbarium Catalogue.

In 2011, Kew partnered with The Times to produce a show garden to showcase the significance of plants to science and society.

The garden, designed by Chelsea gold medallist Marcus Barnett, featured species chosen to demonstrate both beauty and utility, including medicinal, commercial, and industrial uses to underline the fact that plants are invaluable to our everyday lives – without them, none of us could live on this planet; they produce our food, clothing and the air that we breathe.

Lamium maculatum is the wild relative of the cultivar Lamium maculatum 'Chequers', which was featured in Kew’s garden at Chelsea. A cultivar is a cultivated variant of a species, which is often called a ‘variety’ in the horticultural trade. Cultivars usually have characteristics that make them more desirable to growers, for example a carrot that is sweeter than its wild relative or a rose with less thorns than its wild counterpart.

- Find out more about the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show

- Browse some of the other plants that featured in the garden

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

Kew fact sheet - Lamium

Lamiaceae Science Team at Kew

The mint family (Lamiaceae)

Interactive Key to the Lamiaceae