Dense whorled spikes of pink-purple, white-marked flowers on a hairy square stem grow beside a pond, with narrow, almost stalkless leaves
Marsh woundwort, Stachys palustris.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Marsh woundwort
Native · flowers Jun–Oct · pond, river and canal margins and damp ground
Stachys palustris — Lamiaceae
A tall, hairy mint-family plant of wet ground, with dense whorled spikes of pinkish-purple, white-marked flowers. It is common across most of Britain except the Scottish Highlands. Unlike its garden and hedgerow relative, hedge woundwort, it has at most a faint aroma.
How to spot them
- ▸Erect, square, hairy stems with whorls of purple-pink flowers, each with white markings on the lower lip, in an interrupted spike
- ▸Oblong to lance-shaped leaves with a heart-shaped base and blunt teeth, in pairs, and hardly stalked
- ▸Tall plant, often a metre or more, growing on damp ground and at pond and river edges
- ▸Faintly aromatic, unlike hedge woundwort, which stinks when crushed
- ▸Look-alike: hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) has darker maroon flowers, broader stalked leaves and an unpleasant smell, and grows in hedges and woods
How to know it
Separated from a hedgerow relative by paler flowers, narrower leaves and a lack of a foul smell when crushed
Marsh woundwort versus hedge woundwort.
Common and easily identified, it is a member of the mint family found on pond and river margins across most of Britain except the Scottish Highlands
Marsh woundwort, per NatureSpot.
The plant's name records the use of leaves as wound dressings
Woundwort — wound-plant — marsh woundwort.
Two leaf-mining flies, Amauromyza morionella and A. labiatarum, make galleries in its leaves
Marsh woundwort, per NatureSpot.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Lamiaceae, the mint family, with square stems and opposite leaves
- •NatureSpot: flowers June to October; common across most of Britain except the Scottish Highlands
- •'Wort' is Old English for plant; woundworts were used to dress wounds
- •Hedge woundwort, Stachys sylvatica, has an unpleasant smell when crushed; marsh woundwort is only faintly aromatic
- •Its flowers are visited mainly by bumblebees
- •Leaf-mining flies Amauromyza morionella and A. labiatarum feed on it
- •Native
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Sources
- NatureSpot — Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris)