Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council Plants Resource Page

Plant of the Month -

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Plant Description

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Henbit is a weed native to Europe, Asia and Africa which blooms from April through September. The flowers appear in leaf axils or in clusters at the ends of stems and are tubular and pink/lavendar with maroon spots. Bees are known to pollinate the flowers. The leaves are rounded and toothed, about an inch in diameter, with short or almost no stems. Like other members of the mint family, its leaves are aromatic when crushed.

The genus name Lamium is latin for mint, and amplexicaule refers to how the leaves clasp the stems.

Contributed by Liz Baumann


- Originally featured:
Last modified: May 12 2017 16:41:03.
References:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, by Milt McAuley
Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and Chaparral Regions of Southern California, by Nancy Dale
Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People.., by Jan Timbrook
Images Botanical Terms for Leaves