SQWIB
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Plant ID needed

Please help ID this plant.These guys are popping up everywhere through cracks in the concrete, in the bricks, between pavers, pretty much everywhere. lol.

I may keep them and plant them in some areas throughout the yard if they are beneficial in some form.

Image

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I believe these are dead nettle, but I ave trouble telling the difference with henbit. Good chicken feed, I have heard. I just pull them, let them dry out, then use as mulch... or put in the vermicomposter or compost pile.

One beneficial aspect of these -- this time of the year, when you pull these out of the ground and shake off the rich black dirt from their roots, there are always earthworms congregating under them. I think they exude something the earthworms like from their roots.

told2b
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https://identifythatplant.com/three-easi ... ng-plants/

Good description and pics of 3 look-alikes.

SQWIB
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Thanks.
It's most definitely "purple dead nettle"

ButterflyLady29
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Yes, dead nettle. They are only a problem in the early spring. The plant dies once the weather gets hot. They provide food for bees when little else is available.

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rainbowgardener
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Yup, purple dead nettle. But you put this under Gardening with Native Plant Species. Purple dead nettle, while it has naturalized and volunteers everywhere, is NOT native. It is an invasive exotic.

john gault
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ButterflyLady29 wrote:Yes, dead nettle. They are only a problem in the early spring. The plant dies once the weather gets hot. They provide food for bees when little else is available.
I agree, I see these in my yard and keep them, because the bees love them and then they go away as the temps go up, only to come back next year and provide an early foodsource for the pollinators, since it blooms before many other plants.

Although, I don't get a lot, because they are choked out by another related plant, also in the mint family, called the Florida Betony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stachys_floridana

Just like the dead nettle, it's a mint and I've noticed that bees just seem to love plants in the mint family, not sure why, but they go crazy over them. Bee Balm is in the mint family. :flower:



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