Henbit and Deadnettle

A few weeks ago I wrote a note about my stirrup hoe:   Stirrup Hoe

At that time, I was using it to clean henbit out of one of my raised beds.  Henbit is one of those spring weeds that comes up everywhere.  It has these small lilac colored flowers that can make whole fields look like they have been painted purple.  I have spent most of the spring pulling this weed out of my garden.

At one point, I noticed a plant that looked like henbit, but the leaves where slightly different.  Here is a picture to illustrate what I mean.

The plant on the left is henbit.  The plant on the right is the mystery plant.  I realized that I'd been seeing this plant all spring thinking it was henbit.  Was this just a variation of henbit or was it a totally different plant?  Now my curiosity was aroused and I went on a mission to try to discover the identity of this new plant.

I've found a Facebook group called "Oklahoma Wildcrafting".  This is a great group composed of folks from all over the state.  Many of them are experts on identifying plants.  I have learned a lot just by lurking in this group.  So, my first action was to post a picture of the plant on this group's Facebook page.  And, sure enough, someone answered my post within a couple of hours.  

The plant on the right is called "Purple Dead Nettle".   After I had the plant identified, I looked it up on the Eat the Weeds website.  Here's what it had to say about the two plants: 

"Henbit can sometimes be confused with Purple Dead Nettle which is also edible. The difference in the two can be seen in the leaves. Henbit has heart-shaped leaves with big scalloped edges that grow along the entire length of the stem. The Purple Dead Nettle (dead in this case means not stinging) has more triangular shaped leaves that grow in a big clumps. Both are very nutritious, high in iron, vitamins and fiber. The seeds of the Purple Dead Nettle, Lamium purpureum, (LAM-ee-um  per-PER-ee-um)  have antioxidants and presumably the L. amplexicaule would as well."

So, there you have it folks, a bit of plant identification minutia that I'm sure you were eager to know!