The stars of the season? Dead-nettles

December is hardly wildflower season, so it’s easy not to look for plants in bloom. This would be a mistake, particularly in London where many native species straggle on far beyond their normal flowering time. Two plants you’re almost certain to find are red or white dead-nettles, Lamium purpureum and Lamium album respectively.  

These are much jollier than their stinging namesake, bearing lovely purple or white flowers which are far tougher than their dainty appearance. These plants can’t hurt you. They’re not even in the same family as the stinging nettle.  

The dead-nettles never seem to stop flowering and are looking particularly perky at present. You’ll find them everywhere: around the bases of street trees, in lawns and scrappy bits of land like verges and river banks.  

White dead-nettles are the taller and chunkier of the two species. Their leaves are more sharply toothed and their flowers 2-3cm in length. Red dead-nettles grow lower to the ground, have smaller flowers and often have a purple tinge to their newly emerged leaves.  

Confusingly, you can find rare patches of white-flowered red dead-nettles, too, but the one thing all these plants have in common is that their blooms look faintly luminous on grey days. There are other species of  

dead-nettles, some of which have even more colourful blooms, but you’re less likely to find them in flower right now.  

Later this month, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland holds its New Year Plant Hunt and asks people to send in records of flowers they’ve found at the turn of the year.  

It is partly a way of recording the effects of changing weather and climate on our native flora from year to year. But the hunt also encourages us to feel less wearied by the winter weather and to realise how much is still in bloom. It would be more of a surprise if your list doesn’t feature at least one dead-nettle, given how eager they are to cheer us up.  

Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of the Spectator and author of The Natural Health Service