One of the best early spring feeders for overwinter bees.
Altitudeviation
Central Texas here, I just spent the afternoon pulling up fist fulls of Henbit. Similar looking to Henbit is Dead Nettle. The flower are slightly different and Dead Nettle’s upper most leaves turn a reddish-purplish color over time.
An interesting tale regarding Henbit, it is sometimes called “Fairy Trumpet”. If you pull off the flower and gently blow into the base you will hear a high pitched tone, kind of like a mosquito in your ear, but much more attractive. I’ve done it, it works and is amusing for my grandchildren. They say, that If you blow just the right tune at just the right time, the fairy’s will come to you and give you a gift. But fairy’s have only small magic, so if you wish for a feast, you will find an apple in your lunch box. If you wish for wealth, you’ll find a quarter in your couch cushions. If you wish for love, your dog (or cat) will lick your nose.
Henbit and Dead Nettle are NOT toxic, so the kids can get all green pulling up fairy trumpets and won’t be harmed.
Important for pollinators in early spring, also edible for humans.
radish-slut
Henbit. It’s an invasive weed, try to remove all of it if you can.
Koren55
We call it “that purple crap”.
BwookieBear
For better IDs, you need a close up on the leafs and flowers, this is far to blurry to give a 100% certain ID
8 Comments
Henbit
*Lamium amplexicaule,* aka ‘henbit dead nettle’
those are not weeds – they’re edible and cute ffs
One of the best early spring feeders for overwinter bees.
Central Texas here, I just spent the afternoon pulling up fist fulls of Henbit. Similar looking to Henbit is Dead Nettle. The flower are slightly different and Dead Nettle’s upper most leaves turn a reddish-purplish color over time.
An interesting tale regarding Henbit, it is sometimes called “Fairy Trumpet”. If you pull off the flower and gently blow into the base you will hear a high pitched tone, kind of like a mosquito in your ear, but much more attractive. I’ve done it, it works and is amusing for my grandchildren. They say, that If you blow just the right tune at just the right time, the fairy’s will come to you and give you a gift. But fairy’s have only small magic, so if you wish for a feast, you will find an apple in your lunch box. If you wish for wealth, you’ll find a quarter in your couch cushions. If you wish for love, your dog (or cat) will lick your nose.
Henbit and Dead Nettle are NOT toxic, so the kids can get all green pulling up fairy trumpets and won’t be harmed.
Important for pollinators in early spring, also edible for humans.
Henbit. It’s an invasive weed, try to remove all of it if you can.
We call it “that purple crap”.
For better IDs, you need a close up on the leafs and flowers, this is far to blurry to give a 100% certain ID