As the seasons pass, I enjoy watching for new wildflowers that change our landscape here in the Mountains of East Tennessee. I’ve always thought it would be interesting too to make a journal entry everytime these new plants come back out. So here’s my entry for Mid-March. Although most people are included to rid their gardens of natural wildflowers, they always seem to attract my attention.
Purple Dead Nettle is one of those strange and odd little plants that pop out in early spring and the bees and other insects seem drawn to their flowers, especially bees and creature with small toungues that find these plants easy to feed upon.
They are a member of the mint family and appear most everywhere in East Tennessee in early April and continue growing throughout Spring. They grow no more the 4 or 10 inches high and are another color wildflower that has a herbal usages and are easy to find on the net.
Named Lamium purpureum, Purple Dead Nettle is a favorite of horses and is evidently makes a nice tea and promotes persperation and acts on the kidneys. Some also say that it’s a perfect laxative or tonic.