Dead nettles are plants with a general shape and leaves which look rather similar to nettles. But they aren’t related, and don’t sting – that’s why they’re “dead”.
Their flowers always come in a contrasting colour to the rest of the plant, unlike true nettles. Some are red, some, like these, white.
Japanese acer and magnolia in front of Bantock House.
The red leaves of the acer contrast with the colours of the other tree: the green leaves and the white petals, on high as well as carpeting the ground.
Lone periwinkle growing among the nettles and other vegetation under the hedge on the verge of a quiet country lane not far from Bridgnorth.
Bedraggled bee clinging tightly to the leaf of a borage or similar. Plant and insect were both drying out after overnight rain.
Honesty, its flowers brightening springtime hedgerows, here by a road on the edge of Wombourne.
Looking up at elm flowers and a cloudless spring sky: not a common sight in the decades since Dutch elm disease struck. The beetle which carries the fungal infection usually finds the young trees when they have grown to hedgerow height.
