Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum) is a common weed in most yards in the United States. It is both edible and medicinal – and most people have no idea this powerful is right in their own backyards!

With its ability to fight skin imperfections, It can improve the tone of your skin with daily wear. It also helps with itchy of inflamed skin conditions.

Identification:

Flowers: Purple, irregular, tubular flowers

Leaves: Opposite, roughly triangular with teeth. As the season progresses, the upper leaves turn purple.

Stem: Square

The most common look-alike you’ll run into is henbit. As you can see, it looks very similar, but the flowers point upwards and the leaves wrap around the stem.

Here are a few easy ways to introduce this amazing plant into your home.

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1. Pesto

You can take advantage of the nutrition this plant has to offer by making

2. A Salad Herb

Purple Dead Nettle is a little bitter, so using it sparingly in a salad makes sense, depending on your taste buds. Adding in some violet leaves, chickweed, greenbrier, sassafras, yellow wood sorrel, or others can go a long way!

3. A Salve

You can use Purple Dead Nettle in a salve as well, just as you would use yarrow, plantain, chickweed or others. It helps speed up healing and has anti-itch properties.

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