Stachys sylvatica

Perennial of the Lamiaceae family, widely spread in Europe and temperate Asia, present in a large part of France. A typically forest species, it frequents cool and shaded undergrowth, hedges, roadsides, and moist edges, from the plain to the lower mountain levels.

It forms upright clumps that can reach 40 to 80 cm, with robust, quadrangular stems, bristling with clearly visible stiff hairs. The leaves are large, heart-shaped, long-petioled, bright green, with a hairy surface and crenate margin.

The bilabiate flowers are a deep purple-pink to magenta, with the lower lip adorned with well-marked irregular white spots. These contrasting patterns, floral guides directing bumblebee pollinators to the nectar, evoke at first glance the labella of certain European terrestrial orchids where they play a similar role, with natural selection having led in both families to convergent visual solutions to attract the same visitors. The flowers are inserted in spaced whorls along an elongated terminal spike, on densely hispid stems and bracts. In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from June to September.

This common native species is not cultivated in rock gardens, but it can naturally integrate into a woodland garden or a shaded naturalized area, on fresh to moist soil, rich in humus.