Stachys arvensis

Last updated

Stachys arvensis
Stachys arvensis 01.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Stachys
Species:
S. arvensis
Binomial name
Stachys arvensis
L.

Stachys arvensis is a species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common names field woundwort [1] and staggerweed. [2] It is native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. It is known on other continents as an introduced species and widespread weed.

Contents

Description

Field woundwort is an annual herb with branched, square stems up to 45 cm long, growing with a sprawling or erect habit. The stems are pale green and covered with patent, sparsely glandular hairs up to 2 mm long. Plants are easily uprooted to reveal a mass of short, white, fibrous roots at the base of the plant and sometimes along any horizontal stems close to the base. The leaves are arranged in opposite, decussate pairs, with no stipules, and petioles of up to 4 cm long; the blade is simple and oval, up to 4 cm long, with a truncate base and between 7 and 12 rounded teeth per side. They are dull, medium green on the upper surface and paler beneath, hairy on both sides. [3] [4]

The inflorescence consists of a terminal spike with up to 8 false whorls (actually two opposite clusters that look like a whorl) of 4 to 7 flowers, each with a short pedicel of up to 1.5 mm. The whorls are subtended by a pair of leaf-like bracts which are stalked at the base of the inflorescence, becoming sessile towards the top of the plant. There is also one tiny bracteole at the base of each cluster of flowers. The lower whorls are widely spaced, but the upper ones are more crowded towards the tip of the plant. The flowers are zygomorphic with a 5 lobed calyx tube 5 to 7 mm long, and two lipped corolla 6 to 8 mm. The upper lip is entire and the lower lip is three lobed, with the central lobe much larger. It can be white, pink or purple. [3]

Habitat and ecology

It grows in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas, and often in moist spots.

Taxonomy

Stachys arvensis was described by Linnaeus in 1763. [5] The common name staggerweed is because the plant is poisonous to livestock and causes livestock to stagger around. [6]

Uses

As its common name 'field woundwort' suggests, this herb has been used since Roman times in healing wounds, and its seeds, scattered by Roman soldiers, mark the lines of Roman roads. [7] Its close relatives hedge woundwort and marsh woundwort are also used to treat wounds.

Related Research Articles

<i>Stachys</i> Genus of plants in the sage family

Stachys is a genus of plants, one of the largest in the mint family Lamiaceae. Estimates of the number of species vary from about 300, to about 450. Stachys is in the subfamily Lamioideae and its type species is Stachys sylvatica. The precise extent of the genus and its relationship to other genera in the subfamily are poorly known.

<i>Sherardia</i> Genus and species of flowering plant

Sherardia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus contains only one species, Sherardia arvensis, the (blue) field madder, which is widespread across most of Europe and northern Africa as well as southwest and central Asia and Macaronesia. It is also reportedly naturalized in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Kerguelen, Ethiopia, Sudan, southern Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti and much of Canada and the United States.

<i>Leonurus cardiaca</i> Species of plant

Leonurus cardiaca, known as motherwort, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. Other common names include throw-wort, lion's ear, and lion's tail. Lion's tail is also a common name for Leonotis leonurus, and lion's ear, a common name for Leonotis nepetifolia. Originally from Central Asia and southeastern Europe, it is now found worldwide, spread largely due to its use as a herbal remedy.

<i>Ajuga reptans</i> Species of flowering plant

Ajuga reptans is commonly known as bugle, blue bugle, bugleherb, bugleweed, carpetweed, carpet bugleweed, and common bugle, and traditionally however less commonly as St. Lawrence plant. It is an herbaceous flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to Europe. It is invasive in parts of North America. It is also a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures, a Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the United Kingdom.

<i>Lamium amplexicaule</i> Species of flowering plant

Lamium amplexicaule, commonly known as common henbit, or greater henbit, is a species of Lamium native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa.

<i>Galeopsis tetrahit</i> Species of plant

Galeopsis tetrahit, the common hemp-nettle or brittlestem hempnettle, is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe and northwestern Asia.

<i>Stachys byzantina</i> Species of flowering plant

Stachys byzantina, the lamb's-ear or woolly hedgenettle, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. It is cultivated throughout much of the temperate world as an ornamental plant, and is naturalised in some locations as an escapee from gardens. Plants are very often found under the synonym Stachys lanata or Stachys olympica.

<i>Wachendorfia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Wachendorfia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants that is assigned to the bloodroot family. The plants have a perennial rootstock with red sap. From the rootstock emerge lance- or line-shaped, sometime sickle-shaped, pleated, simple leaves set in a fan, that are flattened to create a left and right surface rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaves die when the seeds are shed in three of the species, and are perennial in one species. The rootstock also produces flowering stems annually that carry a panicle of zygomorphic, yellow or yellowish flowers in two distinct forms, one with the style and one stamen bent to the right and two stamens to the left, and vice versa. The fruit opens with three valves and each contains a single, hairy seed. All species only occur in the fynbos biome in the Cape Provinces of South Africa.

<i>Veronica arvensis</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae

Veronica arvensis, common names: wall speedwell, corn speedwell, common speedwell, rock speedwell, field speedwell, is an annual flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. The species is native to Europe and a common weed in gardens, pastures, waste places, and cultivated land.

<i>Stachys palustris</i> Species of flowering plant

Stachys palustris, commonly known as marsh woundwort, clown's woundwort, clown's heal-all, marsh hedgenettle, or hedge-nettle, is an edible perennial grassland herb growing to 80 centimeters tall. It is native to parts of Eurasia but has been introduced to North America. The species epithet palustris is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat.

<i>Stachys sylvatica</i> Species of herb

Stachys sylvatica, commonly known as hedge woundwort, whitespot, or sometimes as hedge nettle, is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to 80 cm (31 in) tall in woodland and unmanaged grassland. In temperate zones of the northern hemisphere it flowers in July and August. The flowers are purple. The leaves, when crushed or bruised, give off an unpleasant fetid smell.

<i>Echinops sphaerocephalus</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Echinops sphaerocephalus, known by the common names glandular globe-thistle, great globe-thistle or pale globe-thistle, is a Eurasian species of globe-thistle belonging to the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae.

<i>Salvia brandegeei</i> Species of shrub

Salvia brandegeei is a perennial evergreen shrub in the mint family known by the common names Santa Rosa Island sage or Brandegee's sage. It is a fragrant plant characterized by lavender flowers and dark green leaves. For many years, it was thought to be native only to Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, until it was discovered along the coast of Baja California. It is threatened by development and mining along the mainland portions of its range, but otherwise has a stable population on Santa Rosa Island.

Collinsia corymbosa is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name round-headed Chinese houses. It is endemic to the coastline of California north of the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is uncommon and scattered. Its habitat is the sand dunes of the immediate coastline. This is an annual herb producing a scaly, hairy, red to reddish green stem which grows upright or decumbent to a maximum length of about 25 centimeters. The thick, sparsely hairy leaves are rippled and lobed along the edges, which may be somewhat turned under. The inflorescence is a dense whorl of several distinctive flowers. Each has a hairy calyx of lobed reddish sepals and a corolla up to about 2 centimeters long. The flower has two small upper lobes and three longer lower lobes which come together in a nearly tubular shape. It is generally white with a light purple tint. The smaller upper lobes curl back and dry to brown at their lips.

Collinsia greenei is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name Greene's blue-eyed Mary.

<i>Erysimum repandum</i> Species of flowering plant

Erysimum repandum is a species of Erysimum known by several common names, including spreading wallflower, spreading treacle-mustard, and bushy wallflower.

<i>Potentilla norvegica</i> Species of flowering plant

Potentilla norvegica is a species of cinquefoil known by the common names rough cinquefoil, ternate-leaved cinquefoil, and Norwegian cinquefoil. It is native to Europe, Asia, and parts of North America, and it can be found elsewhere as an introduced species.

<i>Stachys recta</i> Species of flowering plant

Stachys recta, commonly known as stiff hedgenettle or perennial yellow-woundwort, is herbaceous perennial plant of the family Lamiaceae.

<i>Solanum villosum</i> Species of plant

Solanum villosum, the hairy nightshade, red nightshade or woolly nightshade, is a sprawling annual weed in Europe, western Asia, northern Africa and is also naturalized in Australia and North America.

<i>Stachys stebbinsii</i> Species of plant

Stachys stebbinsii is a species of perennial herb in the mint family commonly known as Stebbins' hedgenettle. This plant is characterized by a musky aroma, flowers with large lower lips, and glandular hairs that densely cover the stems. S. stebbinsii is native to California and northwestern Baja California. It is usually found growing in moist places in a wide variety of habitats including disturbed areas, chaparral, coastal sage scrub and mountains.

References

  1. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Stachys arvensis". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (2009). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. Poland, John; Clement, Eric (2009). The Vegetative Key to the British Flora. Southampton: John Poland. ISBN   978-0-9560144-0-5.
  5. "Linnaeus".
  6. "Staggerweed". Massey University. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  7. Carlton Reid (2014). "Roads Were Not Built for Cars". Island Press. p. 39