Purple Deadnettle (Lamium Purpureum)

By : | 10 Comments | On : May 7, 2015 | Category : Dehydrating, Food, Foraging, Preserve, Tea

purple deadnettle forage

Not long ago while strolling our property, I came across these pretty ‘weeds’. The leaves are reminiscent of mint. I soon discovered they are in fact in the mint family; and are known as Purple Deadnettle (Lamium Purpureum). Unlike stinging nettle, it won’t sting if you pluck some.

Lamium Purpureum grows along roadsides and in turned soil. It is an invasive plant, so feel free to pick an abundance of it.
There is a sizeable little field of this lovely wild edible in my yard.

The purple and red leaves along the top, along with tiny purple flowers make attractive early forage for pollinators.

Purple Deadnettle is high in flavonoids, antioxidants, iron, vitamins and fiber. The entire plant is safe to eat and many foragers use it in salads, smoothies, or dried for tea, although most don’t relish the taste much, it is most attractive for its’ health benefits. It has a musty, grassy odor when fresh, but loses this less than sought after odor once dried.

Purple Deadnettle is also taken medicinally; it helps to control allergies and chronic inflammation, and has anti-microbial/fungal, diuretic, astringent, purgative, and styptic properties.

Purple dead nettles’ season is short, about 6 – 10 weeks until it finally fades during the heat of summer. The chance to forage for this little beauty is ending soon, now is the time to collect while you can. Happy hunting.:)

Foraging Purple Deadnettle

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Comments (10)

  1. posted by Katherines Corner on May 8, 2015

    beautiful and good for you too! Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. xo

      Reply
  2. posted by Janet Garman on May 8, 2015

    We have a lot of it on our farm. I feed it to the ducks and chickens thanks for telling me more about it

      Reply
    • posted by YogurtHydro on May 9, 2015

      Once it takes hold it spreads like crazy doesn’t it? I don’t mind because it’s all located in an unused area and it looks nice when it’s bright purple and flowering.

        Reply
  3. posted by Mai Tran on May 16, 2015

    First time saw this! Beautiful thing!

      Reply
  4. posted by FeathersInTheWoods (@la_murano) on June 11, 2015

    These are so pretty! I swear I saw some when I was out in the woods…..now I’ll have to look for them!

    Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday. I hope to see you back this week!

    Lisa

      Reply
    • posted by YogurtHydro on June 12, 2015

      They are past their prime now for the year so if you find some they will look much duller color-wise; keep an eye out early next spring to catch them when they are most vibrant. I agree, they are striking when the colors are their boldest.:)

        Reply
  5. posted by Linda Manns Linneman on July 14, 2015

    I don’t think I have ever seen this plant nor heard of it before. Thank you for sharing. Tis was a great learning article for me

      Reply

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