Galeopsis tetrahit Common Hemp-nettle

Witchy Wisdom
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Galeopsis tetrahit Common Hemp-nettle

I encountered a strange plant while weeding around my perennial sweet pea. It has some serious thorns around the flower head.

The stem was square so I knew it was in the mint family. It was covered in downward pointing hairs.

The leaves were opposite, hairy, oval with a stretched out tip and toothed margins with prominent veins.

The flowers were in dense clusters in the leaf axils and looked like miniature pinkish purple snap dragons amid very hard spines.

It flowers from July to September.

It is self-fertile, reproduces by seed and is a very early germinating annual that grows to 1 m.

It prefers moist soil and light woodland or no shade.

Other names for the common hemp-nettle are bee nettle, dog nettle, and flowering nettle.

Its normal range was Europe, including Britain, Iceland, and Russia to Spain and Macedonia. It has been introduced to North America.

The plant is considered poisonous, causing paralysis. It is antispasmodic, detergent, expectorant, and resolvent and is used in the treatment of tissue-wasting complaints and pulmonary complaints.

I have not found any magical correspondences for it but the serious thorns suggest protection!

https://web.archive.org/web/20170809204212id_/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/12485/i1547-3465-06-255.pdf?sequence=1

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That’s a pretty weed. I’ve never seen one before.

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That is very pretty!

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My mum says weeds are just wild unloved flowers :pleading_face:. This is so pretty :green_heart:

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What a funky little nettle - those prickles are very fierce! I would second your idea that it could be used for protective or defense spells.

Nice find, @bj1 - thanks for sharing it with us! :herb: :sparkles:

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I wonder how the thorn clusters would dry? It’s such an interesting and beautiful plant, it would be neat to preserve a few. :herb:

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I did save the top of the plant. I left it in a plastic bag with the top open for a week and then flattened it with a book so the thorns on two sides wouldn’t come through the bag.
I just checked on it and found a bunch of seeds in the bag. You can see in this photo where they came out of the holes between the thorns. The thorns are still pretty nasty.
I would offer to send you some of the seeds, but the sniffer dogs at the border could get us in trouble! :smiley:

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As much as I’d love to add a thorny seed pod to my seeds, nuts, and cones collection, I agree running afoul with the USDA or APHIS would not be a great idea!! :grin:

I think to see if it is found in NC and does look like it does grow in some of the state’s mountainous areas. Maybe one day, I’ll run across it!

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