MINT FAMILY 



LABIATAE 



WOUNDWORT. HEDGE NETTLE 



Stachys palustris L. 



The Woundwort or Hedge Nettle is a hairy herb of the Mint 

 family that extends across the continent but does not go far to 

 the south. It occurs south to Union county and is common in 



wet soil in open places in the 

 middle and northern parts of 

 Illinois. Moist places along 

 railroads are favorite spots, 

 where it may be conspicuous 

 in large patches. Formerly it 

 was much used in medicine. 



The square stem of this 

 perennial is 1-4 feet high, 

 rather slender, and the hairs 

 on its angles are longer than 

 elsewhere and point down- 

 ward. The leaves are rather 

 firm and sometimes the lower 

 hav^e short petioles. 



Blooming from June to 

 September, the plant pro- 

 duces 6-10 purple or pale red 

 flowers in each of a number 

 of whorls above the upper- 

 most foliage leaves, sometimes also in the upper axils. The calyx 

 is bell shaped and nearly equally 5-toothed. The corolla is 

 strongly 2-lipped; the erect upper lip is entire, concave and some- 

 what hairy outside, and the lower is spreading and 3-lobedi The 

 4 stamens, in pairs of unequal length, are under the upper lip ot 

 the corolla. The ovary is deeply 4-lobed and the style is 2-cleft 

 at the top. 



The Light-green Hedge Nettle, Stachys cordata Riddell, is found 

 on rich bottomlands throughout Illinois. It is paler green in leaves 

 and stem, 24-32 inches high and very hairy. Leaf petioles are as 

 long as the blades, which are 6 inches in length, 3 inches wide, 

 heart shaped, pinnately veined and serrate. The pink-purple flowers 

 are much like those of Woundwort, but in interrupted spikes that 

 blossom in July and August. The plant lives in woods and thickets 

 from New York to Oregon, south to North Carolina and Illinois. 



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