LAB1ATAE (MINT FAMILY) 



355 



HENBIT 



Lamium amplexicatile, L. 



Other English names : Dead Nettle, Blind Nettle, Bee Nettle. 



Introduced. Annual or biennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: April to October. 



Seed-time: May to November. 



Range: New Brunswick to Ontario and Minnesota, southward to 



Florida and Arkansas. 

 Habitat: Cultivated ground, waste places. 



This weed flourishes best in cool weather, dying down in the 

 heat of midsummer but recovering in autumn and maturing a 

 late crop of seeds ; autumn seed- 

 lings develop fruit very early in the 

 spring, so that the soil is fouled 

 with two abundant sowings each 

 year. Stems six to eighteen inches 

 long, slender, square, branching 

 from the base and also from the 

 lower axils, weak and spreading 

 on the ground. Leaves opposite, 

 rounded, deeply scallop-toothed, 

 sparsely hairy, the lower ones with 

 short petioles, the upper ones ses- 

 sile and clasping. Flowers in small 

 axillary and terminal clusters ; 

 calyx hairy, with five erect, awl- 

 like teeth corolla-tube slender, 

 with the upper lip erect, entire, 

 and bearded, dark red, the lower 

 one three-lobed, white, spotted 

 with purple ; stamens ascending 

 against the upper lip, the anterior 

 pair the longer. The flowers contain much nectar and honeybees 

 are frequent visitors. Seeds four long, ovoid nutlets, dark brown, 

 specked with white dots. These seeds are long-lived and tillage 

 should begin early and be continued late, in order to prevent their 

 development and distribution. (Fig. 246.) 



FIG. 



246. Henbit (Lamium am- 

 plexicaule). X 1- 



