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Portrait of Yellow archangel

Nature · Wildflowers & flowers

Yellow archangel

Native (wild form) · flowers May–Jun · ancient woodland and hedgerows, mainly England and Wales

Lamium galeobdolon (syn. Lamiastrum galeobdolon) — Lamiaceae

Yellow archangel is a nettle-like plant of ancient woods and hedge banks that does not sting, with whorls of hooded yellow flowers in May and June. The wild plant is a good sign of old woodland, but a silver-leaved garden form, known as aluminium plant, has escaped and is a legally controlled invasive plant in the wild.

How to spot them

  • ▸Square stems with pairs of toothed, oval to heart-shaped, hairy, nettle-like leaves
  • ▸Whorls of hooded, two-lipped yellow flowers, the lower lip streaked brownish, up the stem in the leaf axils
  • ▸Does not sting, unlike the stinging nettle it resembles
  • ▸Grows in woods, on hedge banks and wood banks, spreading by long creeping runners
  • ▸Look-alike: the silver-blotched garden form (Lamium galeobdolon subsp. argentatum) escapes into woods and has white-streaked leaves; yellow flowers separate it from white and red dead-nettles

How to know it

Whorls of hooded yellow flowers up a square stem clothed in nettle-like leaves that do not sting

Yellow archangel — Lamium galeobdolon.

Its name may come from its virtue of not stinging despite leaves that resemble a stinging nettle

Yellow archangel.

A silver-streaked garden form of this woodland plant, nicknamed aluminium archangel, has become an invasive escape

Yellow archangel — the cultivated forms are on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Flowering in May and June, this dead-nettle relative is a plant of ancient woodlands and hedgerows, most common in England and Wales

Yellow archangel.

Common names for this plant include weasel's snout and yellow deadnettle

Yellow archangel — from the RHS.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Family Lamiaceae; formerly Lamiastrum galeobdolon or Galeobdolon luteum
  • •Wildlife Trusts: flowers May to June; a plant of ancient woodlands and hedgerows, most common in England and Wales
  • •RHS: deciduous perennial to 60 cm; flowers hooded like other deadnettles; also called weasel's snout, yellow deadnettle
  • •Grows as a plant of ancient woodlands and hedgerows, and is often found on woodland banks, but do not assume every patch marks ancient woodland
  • •The name probably reflects its not stinging despite nettle-like leaves
  • •Some cultivated varieties are listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act; it is an offence to plant or cause them to grow in the wild in England and Wales
  • •The garden 'aluminium archangel' has silvery leaf streaks and has spread from gardens

Drill it — 6 cards

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Sources