Hedge Woundwort

 Stachys sylvaticus

A distilled water of the flowers makes the heart merry, to make good a colour in the face and to make the vitall spirits more fresh and lively

Nicholas Culpeper 1514-1541 

Some people dislike hedge woundwort on account of its unpleasant smell and the nettle-like appearance of its leaves but as long as you don’t crush the leaves you can avoid the smell and although the leaves look nettle like they are pleasantly downy to touch. In fact, I like hedge woundwort and if you get up close to the flowers they have a beauty that is the equal of any orchid. For that reason, you should take time to get at eye level with the flowers and enjoy their rich, marbled purple red colour. Don’t be tempted to pick the flowers or crush the leaves though, on account of that smell.

Hedge woundwort in the early morning sun.

Taxonomy

Hedge woundwort belongs to the Lamiaceae or dead-nettle family, look closely at it and you will see that it has features in common with other family members that we have discussed in previous blogs including, red dead-nettle, white dead-nettle and yellow archangel. These features include a square stem, opposite leaves and flowers with bilateral symmetry that are arranged in whorls around the stem. The leaves are usually aromatic in a pleasant way but in this regard, hedge woundwort is an outlier. The first part of the binomial name, Stachys, means spike, but this is not a spike in the true botanical sense of the word but perhaps refers to the somewhat narrow conical shape of the inflorescence. The second or species name sylvatica means of the forest although I usually seem to find it in hedgerows.

General appearance

An erect perennial plant that grows up to about one metre in height. The stem is square and hairy and often tinged with purple. It is usually unbranched though occasionally you seem to find solitary branches. There is a terminal purple inflorescence that will be described in more detail below.

Leaves

The leaves are arranged oppositely with successive pairs of leaves at right angles to each other (decussate). This maximises photosynthetic efficiency by minimising shading from the leaves immediately above. The leaves have long petioles, a heart shaped or cordate base, and an acute angled tip, the margins are regularly toothed. The leaf surface is densely hairy and feels almost furry to touch.

Typical leaf showing serrated edge and cordate base.

Inflorescence and flowers

The inflorescence is a conical series of whorls arranged up the terminal part of the stem. There are sometimes accessory inflorescences on branching stems (see picture one above). Each whorl consists of six flowers that are subtended by two bracts. The youngest flowers are to be found in the top tiers and lower down the stem where the corollas have withered away you find empty calyx tubes at the base of which 4 nutlets can be seen with magnification.

The calyx is cup-shaped with five points. The corolla is also five-lobed but this is not so obvious because the petals are fused to form a tube from which a prominent three-lobed lower lip and two-lobed upper lip emerge. The upper lip is smaller, concave and overarches the corolla tube.  Looking into the flower, white marbling can be seen on superimposed the purple-red and whitish hairs are visible 'guarding' the entrance to the tube. Within the concavity of the upper lip, there are two pairs of stamens with cream anthers on reddish filaments. The red style ending in a bifid stigma can also be seen in more mature flowers.

Flower and a bract in the early morning dew

Whorl of mature flowers.

Five-pointed calyx with 4 nutlets at the base.

Where to find hedge woundwort in Leazes Park

Two good places are the wild flower area around the edges of the old bowling green and the wild area adjective to the blue water drops area marking the start of the florid burn - see yellow arrows on the figure below.