Lamium purpureum

Scientific description

Taxon: Lamium purpureum
Class: Dicotyledons (Magnoliopsida)
Subclass: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Common name: Red dead-nettle / Purple dead-nettle

Origin:
Europe and Western Asia.

Description:
Small annual to biennial herbaceous plant (10–30 cm). Opposite, oval, toothed leaves, often purplish at the tips. Square stems (typical of Lamiaceae). Flowers from winter to spring, sometimes year-round; small, tubular, pink-purple, clustered in the axils of the upper leaves. Rapid colonizer of fields, wastelands, and roadsides. Often confused with other Lamium species, distinguished by its colored upper leaves.

Propagation:
By abundant seeds dispersed on the ground (autochory), rapid germination.

Ecology:
Ruderal, nitrophilous, pioneer of disturbed soils. Attracts early-season pollinators (bees, bumblebees).

Uses:
Edible raw or cooked (mild, earthy flavor). Used in traditional herbal medicine for anti-inflammatory and astringent properties.

Threats:
Not threatened; very common and widespread, sometimes considered a weed.

Creative writing inspired by Lamium purpureum

The Monster's Ghoul

One day, in Count Alucard's castle, a disease began to develop, affecting visual perception and hallucinating light. Symptoms include persistent flashes of light in the field of vision, dizziness and vomiting, and severe migraines to the point of suicide when the illness remains long-term. Count Alucard asked one of his wartime scientists to find a cure for the disease... Scarlet Pox.

The scientist, named Kaiser Ernst, went to the orc's pit to pick a previously unknown and forbidden flower called “the purple lamier”. It was guarded like a treasure by a humanoid whom everyone feared for his cruelty: the bloodthirsty killer whale.

Kaiser waited patiently for the orc to fall asleep before picking a few flowers. In all, there were 4.

His experiments began, the first of which was a resounding failure. On the second attempt, he tried to transform the cells, adding atoms, but the flower eventually wilted. On the third attempt, he succeeded, but he had to find a guinea pig. He immediately thought of the young countess. At the same time, a distraught Count Alucard rushed into Kaiser's laboratory and begged him to save his daughter, who would succumb to the disease if nothing was done. They went to the princess to inject her with the famous elixir extracted from the crimson lamier tree, for which he had risked his life. Kaiser was excited and worried at the same time, for all his experiments and years of research were finally coming to fruition. But the elixir had had no effect.

Panicked, enraged and disappointed by this new failure, he brought the plant to the girl's mouth and made her chew and swallow in a gesture of desperation. But what a surprise it was when the young countess named Jolyne regained consciousness. She looked at them for a moment before recognizing her father, Count Alucard, who in a burst of happiness and excitement embraced Kaiser and his daughter with a look of gratitude and joy at seeing his daughter alive again.

Delighted that the experiment had been a success, Kaiser decided that with the fourth flower, he would perfect the elixir, starting by trying to cultivate the crimson lamier in his laboratory, so as to avoid returning to the pit where the orc would not hesitate to reduce it to nothing. This is how he came to call his new creation The Monster's Ghoul, for from the front it looked like a monster with its mouth open.

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Authentic Specimen