''Stachys sylvatica'', commonly known as hedge woundwort, whitespot, or sometimes as hedge nettle, is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

growing to tall in woodland and unmanaged grassland. In

temperate zone In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

s 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.

Description

Hedge woundwort is an erect perennial plant with slender underground runners. The stem branches occasionally and is squarish and hairy, with glandular hairs on the upper part of the plant. The nodes are widely spaced, and the mid-green, stalked leaves are in opposite pairs. The leaf blades are hairy, have a cordate base and are ovate with a blunt tip and with regular large teeth on the margin. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

forms a dense terminal spike and is composed of dense whorls of purple flowers with white markings. The calyx has five lobes and the corolla forms a two-lipped flower about long with a fused tube. The upper lip of each flower is convex with dense, glandular hairs and the lower lip is three-lobed, the central lobe being the largest. There are four stamens, two long and two short, the

gynoecium Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

has two fused carpels and the fruit is a four-chambered

schizocarp A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps. There are different definitions: * Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate. : Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...

. The plant has a slightly unpleasant smell.

Distribution and habitat

Hedge woundwort is native to Europe and central and western Asia. It grows in dappled shade at the edge of woods, in hedgerows and on rough ground. It has been introduced into

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, and

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Uses

Hedge woundwort is popular with bees. Along with its close relatives field woundwort and marsh woundwort, as their common names suggest, they are used to promote the healing of wounds. The famous 17th century herbalist

John Gerard John Gerard (also John Gerarde, c. 1545–1612) was an English herbalist with a large garden in Holborn, now part of London. His 1,484-page illustrated ''Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes'', first published in 1597, became a popular gard ...

was very impressed with its powers and used it extensively.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q157422 sylvatica Flora of Asia Flora of Europe Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus