''Lamium galeobdolon'', commonly known as yellow archangel, artillery plant, aluminium plant, or yellow weasel-snout, is a widespread wildflower in Europe, and has been introduced elsewhere as a garden plant. It displays the

zygomorphic Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts. Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirall ...

flower morphology,

opposite leaves In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature. Leaf arrangement The basic arrangements of leaves on a stem are opposite and alterna ...

, and square stems typical of the mint family, Lamiaceae. The flowers are soft yellow and borne in axial clusters, with a prominent 'hood' (the dorsal lobe of the corolla). It spreads easily and so has been commonly used as an ornamental ground cover. It can be invasive in places where it is not native and caution must be taken when planting in these areas.

Description

Yellow archangel is a large-leaved perennial plant with underground runners growing to a height of about . The paired

are stalked, broadly ovate with a cordate base and toothed margin. The underside of the leaves is often purplish. The flowers grow in whorls in a terminal spike. The calyx is five-lobed. The corolla is yellow, long, the petals fused with a long tube and two lips. The upper lip is hooded and the lower lip has three similar-sized lobes with the central one being triangular and often streaked with orange. There are two short stamens and two long ones. The

carpel 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' ...

s are fused 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 ...

Taxonomy

There are a number of closely related

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

which

hybridize Hybridization (or hybridisation) may refer to: *Hybridization (biology), the process of combining different varieties of organisms to create a hybrid *Orbital hybridization, in chemistry, the mixing of atomic orbitals into new hybrid orbitals *Nu ...

with ''L. galeobdolon'' and in some cases are not unequivocally accepted as distinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

but considered subspecies or

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

by many authors. Most well known among these is variegated yellow archangel (subsp. ''argentatum''), whose leaves often have variegation, showing as silver patches arranged as a wide semicircle. This, and in particular its large-flowered and even stronger-marked

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

'Variegatum', is the taxon most often met with as a garden escapee.

Distribution

It is native to Europe, and found through Europe and Western Asia. An introduced species in the United States,

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

has declared it a " noxious weed" and banned its sale.

Subspecies

* ''Lamium galeobdolon'' subsp. ''argentatum'' * ''Lamium galeobdolon'' subsp. ''endtmanii'' * ''Lamium galeobdolon'' subsp. ''flavidum'' * ''Lamium galeobdolon'' subsp. ''galeobdolon'' * ''Lamium galeobdolon'' subsp. ''montanum''

Gallery

File:Lamium galeobdolon Sturm40.jpg, Botanical description by Johann Georg Sturm 1796 File:Goldnessel b (Lamium galeobdolon).jpg, Flower File:Lamium galeobdolon 03.jpg, Leaf variegation File:Lamium galeobdolon 2.JPG, Small cluster File:Sargaarvacsalannoveny.jpg, In forest

References

{{Authority control galeobdolon Garden plants Flora of Europe Flora of Serbia Flora of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus