question about purple dead nettle - lamium purpureum

[Michael Moore]

In article <Xns935F93A60811FSaltyThumb at 199.45.49.11>, Salty Thumb of
Death <salty at notsogreenthumb.fake> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Does anyone know where I can find some information on purple dead nettle?  
> Plants.usda.gov just gives some taxonomy.
> 
> Does anyone one know why it's called dead nettle?  Something to do with 
> death or is it a corruption of some other language?  Is it true that it's 
> presence indicates heavy metals (particularly lead) in the soil?  From 
> hearsay, I've gathered that it tends to grow in 'wasteland' which makes 
> sense if the part about heavy metals is true.
> 
> Hopefully this is a good group to pose this question.

It's called "Dead Nettle" because, although it resembles Nettles
(Urtica spp.), and grows in similar localities, it has no stinging
hairs. Therefore it is "dead".

-- 
Michael Moore (hrbmoore at mindspring.com)
SW School of Botanical Medicine - http://www.swsbm.com
All my teaching and clinical manuals, 2000 medicinal plant
images and herb research material can be obtained at my web site.