Henbit dead-nettle

How to recognise it

Habit

Low annual of 10–25 cm with trailing to ascending, square stems that branch from the base.

Leaf

Round to kidney-shaped, 1–2.5 cm, with a scalloped edge; the lower leaves are stalked, the upper ones stalkless in pairs around the stem, like a collar.

Flower

Pinkish-purple, 1.5–2 cm long, with a long, narrow tube and a hairy upper lip, in whorls above the stem-clasping leaves, from March to October. It also often forms small, closed flowers that pollinate themselves.

Fruit/Seed

Four three-sided nutlets per flower, each with a small, fatty appendage that attracts ants.

Roots

Small and shallow: easy to pull up.

Confused with

Red dead-nettle has triangular, stalked, often purple-tinged upper leaves that overlap at the top, and shorter flowers. In henbit the upper leaves sit stalkless around the stem and the flowers are longer and slimmer.

Flowering: March–October

Why grow it?

• One of the first flowers in the vegetable garden: nectar for queen bumblebees, bees and bee-flies as early as March.
• Flowers for months, from March to October, and in mild winters sometimes in December and January too.
• The seeds are spread by ants, which carry them off for their small, fatty appendage.
• Sparrows, finches and other seed-eaters pick up the tiny seeds.
• Young leaves and flowers are edible and can be added raw to a salad.

Henbit dead-nettle: where does it grow best?

• In the wild: fields, vegetable plots, borders, vineyards, verges, waste ground and bare patches.
• Sun to partial shade.
• Loose, dry to moderately moist soil, ideally sandy or limy and fairly fertile.
• In the garden: among the vegetables, in a border, along a path or in a strip of cornfield flowers.

Goes well with

• Red dead-nettle: Flowers at the same time and looks similar: together an early food source for bumblebees.
• Common field-speedwell: Pale blue flowers on the same open ground in spring.
• Chickweed: A low, edible ground cover among the vegetables.
• Cornflower: A blue cornfield flower for summer.

Henbit dead-nettle: when and how to plant it?

1. Henbit usually turns up by itself in a vegetable plot or border; sowing is seldom needed.
2. If you do want it, sow seed of native origin in September–October on open, loose ground, perhaps in a cornfield flower mix.
3. Rake the seed in lightly and keep the soil moist until germination.
4. Leave a few plants among the vegetables or along the edge of a bed, 15–20 cm apart.
5. Never dig up plants from the wild; a little seed from your own plants is more than enough.

Care

Water

Not needed.

Feeding

Not needed; it grows in any ordinary garden soil.

Weeding

Too many? Pull or hoe out young plants before they set seed. Their roots are shallow.

Letting it seed

Let a few plants ripen along the edge of a bed, and it will come back every year.

Harvesting

Pick young tips and flowers for a salad and rinse them well.

Tip: Do not hoe everything away in the vegetable plot in March: leave a few clumps of henbit, because for queen bumblebees that have just woken up, every early flower counts.

Pruning and mowing

When: Not needed; hoe or pull the plants out when you need the bed.

How:

• No pruning is needed: it is a small annual.
• For fewer seedlings, hoe the plants out before they set seed.
• Put pulled plants without seed on the compost heap or use them as mulch between the vegetables.

Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

Ripens a few weeks after flowering; ants carry it away. Sow in autumn on open ground, or let it self-sow.

Henbit dead-nettle: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −15 °C: protect young plants.

• Plants that germinate in autumn overwinter as small plants and flower early in spring.
• In mild winters it simply keeps flowering, often with small, closed flowers.
• It tolerates light to moderate frost, down to about −15 °C.
• In winter the small green plants cover the bare soil of the vegetable plot.

Diseases and pests

• Too many seedlings: On open, cultivated ground it can form a carpet. Hoe on a dry day, before seed set.
• Competition with young vegetables: Pull it out around germinating vegetables; among larger plants it can stay.
• Few flowers: In dense vegetation or deep shade it flowers poorly. Give it an open spot.
• Aphids: Sometimes on the tips; natural enemies such as ladybirds usually deal with them.

Through the year

• February: Overwintered plants start growing.
• March: First pinkish-purple flowers; queen bumblebees come for nectar.
• April: Full flower in the vegetable plot.
• May: Seed ripens; ants carry it away. Weed where it is in the way.
• June: New plants germinate and flower.
• August: In flower on open ground.
• September: Sow on open ground for next spring.
• October: Last flowers; young plants go into winter.
• December: Sometimes still in flower in mild winters.

Did you know?

• The name henbit refers to hens pecking at it; the Dutch name, ‘hoenderbeet’, means the same: ‘a hen’s bite’.
• Amplexicaule means ‘stem-clasping’, after the upper leaves that surround the stem like a collar.
• Some of the flowers never open: these closed flowers pollinate themselves, so the plant sets seed even without insects.