Lamium amplexicaule
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 579 (1753) subsp. amplexicaule.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Deadnettle, henbit deadnettle.
Description:
Annual herbs with branches quadrangular, to 30 cm long and mainly from the base, with recurved simple hairs usually with a broader base, mainly along the ridges and increasing on the inflorescence; leaves with the petiole 1-5 cm long; blade broadly ovate, 0.7-2 x 1-2.5 cm, truncate to cordate at the base, crenate or lobed, sparsely hairy.
Inflorescence a thyrse with a peduncle 4-15 cm long or sometimes less distinct on short lateral branches, with sessile cymose part-inflorescences subtended by sessile clasping bracts, with lower internodes between clusters of flowers much elongated; sepals fused to about half their length, multi-veined, 5-7 mm long, regular, with pointed lobes of equal length densely hairy outside; corolla pale-pink to rose and with darker spots, 2-lipped, with tube much longer than both lips, 14-18 mm long, with hairs on the outer surface, with posterior lip short, erect and hooded, with anterior lip narrowly spathulate with 2 lateral lobes broad and scarcely distinct and the broader anterior lobe distinctly 2-lobed; stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla tube, with filaments glabrous; anthers with 2 cells fertile and strongly diverging so that they are above one another in a vertical line, with bristle-like hairs on the back, enclosed in hood of posterior lip; ovary on a thick disk, deeply 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base and curved along the posterior lip of the corolla, with a 2-fid stigma.
Mericarps obovoid-obpyramidal, c. 3 mm long, with an attachment scar narrowly oblong along the base of the 2 lateral keels, rugose.
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Image source: fig. 553D in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Ross-Craig (1967) Drawings Brit. Pl. 24:pl. 36; Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 572.
Distribution:
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Usually a weed in cultivated lands.
All States except the N.T. New Zealand; native to or an early introduction to most parts of Europe but also into adjoining western Asia and northern Africa.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: July — Nov.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
Cleistogamous plants of this species with a corolla not longer than the calyx have been recorded from S.Aust. and are sometimes placed in a separate var. clandestinum Reichb.
Author:
Not yet available
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