White Dead-nettle (Lamium album), Heddon Common

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 2 May 2020

Richard Mabey informs us that: "Most country children know that a small drop of nectar can be sucked from the base of each flower, but a less benign game is occasionally played with this plant: 'Boys used to pick the flowers off dead-nettles and chase the girls, pretending they were real stinging nettles.'" Bumble bees of many different species were busy here sipping the nectar, although hard to photograph. The nectar at the base of the flowers is only accessible to long-tongued insects such as bumble bees and mason bees. Smaller insects are often not heavy enough to open the flowers. Bee-nettle or Honey Flower are two of its local names. Another, 'Adam-and-Eve-in-the-Bower', recorded from Somerset, refers to the black and gold stamens which stand side by side under their shelter of white inside the flowers. They have also been described as 'Cinderella's Slippers' Image

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