I tend to think of pollen as yellow, but it comes in other colors too. This past weekend I captured this shot of a bee covered in bright red pollen from the Purple Deadnettle flowers (Lamium purpureum) on which it was feeding. Earlier this spring I did a posting with a somewhat similar shot, but misidentified the plant as the closely-related Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule).
Purple Deadnettle is in the mint family and seems to be everywhere at this time of year. I was in a fairly remote area when I took this shot, but I have seen large patches of it in gardens, where it is considered to be a weed. According to an article entitled “Foraging for Purple Dead Nettle: an edible backyard weed,” the plant is not only a wild edible green, but a highly nutritious superfood. The leaves are edible, with the purple tops being even a little sweet. It can also be used in combination with other “weeds” like chickweed and dandelion greens to make pesto and can also be added to soups, salads, or blended into smoothies.
But wait, there is more. Purple Dead Nettle also has purported medicinal benefits. It is known in the herbal world as being astringent, diuretic, diaphoretic and purgative. It’s also anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal and can be used to make salve, poultices, and teas.
As an interesting aside, in Great Britain this plant is apparently known as Red Deadnettle. Why is there a difference in names? I do not know why, but it is not all that surprising considering the number of different words the British use for common objects and the different spellings for common words.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’m going to have to look more closely at our henbit. It might not all be henbit, after all.
From what I was able to determine, one of the keys is the shape of the leaves, but I must confess that I am no expert when it comes to plants.
Me, neither!
We have lots of plants in our yard that most people consider weeds. The bees love them, so we leave them alone.
Great photo, Mike. I didn’t know pollen care in different colors. Thanks!
I have read, but never seen, that pollen can even be green and blue.
Great photo. And again you educate me.
Great image and interesting discovery, Mike.
Maybe whoever named it over here was a touch colour blind 🤔😉
It’s always interesting to see that many birds, insects, and plants have multiple common names–I tend to like the more colorful names when given a choice.
The pollen is amazingly bright like orange glitter! oops I see you describe it as red. Whatever it is, it looks real pretty!
Red/orange–I think the pollen changes color slightly based on the light. I’ve read that pollen can be green and blue and many other colors too, depending on the plants.
Interesting isn’t it? Our native fuchsia tree – it’s flowers have blue pollen.
Blue pollen? Wow! I guess the challenge is to capture shots of the bees gathering that pollen.
After your reply I found a wonderful close-up photo of the blue pollen – at one of our university websites. I’ve emailed the person who took it to see if they’ll permit me to post it on my blog … fingers crossed 🙂
Yay, I quickly received permission and have posted the blue pollen image!
A fine shot, Mike, and at first glance I thought the plant was a mint; we have several patches in our garden here and it looks very similar. Next time it’s in bloom, I’ll try to remember to shake some of the pollen onto a white card.
I don’t know how much longer that species of plants will be blooming this spring, but I think that I may be able to get a pollen sample in the next week or two. If my identification is correct as Purple Deadnettle, it is in the mint family, so it could very well be related to your mint.
We see a lot of purple dead nettle in Seneca Creek State Park; thank you for the ID! I never knew what it was.
I am pretty sure that’s what it is, Nina, though you may want to take my identification with a slight grain of salt–I am no expert with plants, but did try to take a number of different sources.
No, I’m positive. I googled it and looked at a lot of images and I’m sure that’s what we see here. This year I’ve been learning names if quite a few wild plants: beside this one, trout lily, starwort, and yesterday autumn olive. I like to know the names of things.
Cool image Mike! Like the detail!