Nature on our doorsteps: A rare wild beauty
Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into nature on our doorsteps and the beautiful biodiversity of its plants and wildlife.
THE Yellow Archangel is a beautiful wild plant. It has spikes of buttery-yellow flowers that sit in whorls around the stem, accompanied by oppositely placed, green, oval-shaped leaves.
The flower’s yellow petals are shaped to have a rounded hood on top with two ‘lips’ on the bottom.
The pattern of soft brown spots on these lower petals guide bumblebees into the flower’s nectar store.
Yellow Archangel is not a common plant in Ireland. This is because the damp woodland habitat that it prefers is no longer widespread across the country.
It occurs, however, in a number of locations here in South Dublin County, including along the River Liffey and in the Dublin Mountains.
This makes this county an important refuge for this rare plant species.
Yellow Archangel is a member of the Dead Nettle family, all of which have square stems with heart or oval-shaped leaves.
The leaves of the garden variety are splashed with silver markings
While many of the flowers in this broad family are red, pink, blue or white, Yellow Archangel is the only yellow-coloured member of the group.
Its leaves look like Nettles, but they do not sting.
The origin of the ‘Archangel’ name is not clear. It may be a reflection of the rounded shape of the flower’s upper petals which are said to look like a helmet.
The plant’s Latin name, Lamiastrum galeobdolon, reflects this, where ‘galeo’ means to cover something with a helmet.
Also, as Saint Michael the Archangel is often pictured as wearing a rounded helmet, and the pairs of green leaves could look like outstretched wings, these features together may have led to this lovely plant’s name.
A garden variety of Yellow Archangel exists which has unusual splashes of silver on its leaves.
While this is a useful plant in shady corners of the garden, it can be very vigorous.
For this reason, it should not be allowed escape into natural habitats nearby.
