Lamium album
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Lamium album, commonly called white dead-nettle,[1][2] is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native throughout Europe and Asia, growing in a variety of habitats from open grassland to woodland, generally on moist, fertile soils.
Description
Lamium album is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant growing to Script error: No such module "convert". tall,[3] with green, four-angled stems. The leaves are Script error: No such module "convert". long and Script error: No such module "convert". broad, triangular with a rounded base, softly hairy, and with a serrated margin and a petiole up to Script error: No such module "convert". long; like many other members of the Lamiaceae, they appear superficially similar to those of the stinging nettle Urtica dioica but do not sting,[3] hence the common name "dead-nettle". The flowers are white, produced in whorls ('verticillasters') on the upper part of the stem, the individual flowers Script error: No such module "convert". long.
Phytochemistry
Various polyphenolic glycosides such as Lamalboside and Verbascoside, Tiliroside and 5-caffeoylquinic acid along with Rutoside and quercetin 3-O-glucoside and kaempferol 3-O-glucoside can be isolated from the flowers of L. album.[4] The plant also contains the iridoid glycosides lamalbid, alboside A and B, and caryoptoside[5] as well as the hemiterpene glucoside hemialboside.[6]
L.album was a source of chlorophyll and other plant pigments for Mikhail Tsvet, the inventor of adsorption chromatography.[7]
Taxonomy
Lamium album was described and named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.Template:R
Distribution and habitat
L. album is native to Eurasia, from Ireland in the west to Japan in the east. It has three subspecies, subsp. album in the western part of the range, subsp. crinitum in the southern part in southwest Asia (Turkey to Nepal), and subsp. barbatum in the far east of mainland Asia and in Japan.[8][9] It is common in England, rare in the west and northern Scotland, and introduced to eastern Ireland.[10] It is abundant in the British Isles, where it is found on roadsides, around hedges, and in abandoned places.[1][11][12]
L. album was introduced to North America, where it is widely naturalised.
Ecology
The flowers are visited by many types of insects, but mostly by long-tongued insects, like bees.[13] Bumblebees are especially attracted to the flowers, which are a good source of early nectar and pollen, hence the plant is sometimes called the bee nettle.[14][15]
Uses
The young shoots and leaves can be cooked as a vegetable.[3]
Cultural significance
A distillation of the flowers is reputed "to make the heart merry, to make a good colour in the face, and to make the vital spirits more fresh and lively."[16]
Notes
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- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Template:BSBI 2007
- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Phenylpropanoid esters from Lamium album flowers. Jaromir Budzianowski and Lutoslawa Skrzypczak, Phytochemistry, March 1995, Volume 38, Issue 4, Pages 997–1001, Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".
- ↑ Iridoid glucosides from Lamium album. Søren Damtoft, Phytochemistry, January 1992, Volume 31, Issue 1, Pages 175–178, Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".
- ↑ Hemialboside, a hemiterpene glucoside from Lamium album. Søren Damtoft and Søren Rosendal Jensen, Phytochemistry, July 1995, Volume 39, Issue 4, Pages 923–924, Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".
- ↑ Source book in chemistry 1900-1950, edited by Henry Leicester, p.23.
- ↑ Template:Cite POWO
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN
- ↑ Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. p.360 Cork University Press. Template:ISBN
- ↑ Hackney, P. (Ed) 1992. Stewart and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Institute of Irish Studies and The Queen's University of Belfast. Template:ISBN
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ botanical.com - A Modern Herbal | Nettles
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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