To someone, dead-nettle looked like a nettle but it didn't sting like a nettle so it became known as dead-nettle.
But red dead-nettle, a.k.a. purple dead-nettle, (it's really a red-purple, with purplish leaves, red pollen and lavender flowers) isn't a nettle at all, it's a mint. Actually the low-growing weed is a highly invasive alien to my part of the world; it's originally from Europe and Asia but now blooms profusely in lawns and meadows and other open cultivated places early in the season. By summer, it'll be gone.
•
