Yellow Archangel - Lamiastrum galeobdolon

Strong smelling, hairy plant - stoloniferous, with long runners. Often patch forming. Flowers bright yellow with brownish markings, 17 to 21 mm long and borne in whorls on the upper half of the stem. Upper lip hooded the lower lip 3-lobed. Naturalised plants of the garden sub-species Argentatum can sometimes be found - these have silvery markings on the leaves. The garden variety is rampant invader and can out-compete native flora, but is a useful garden nectar plant, particularly for long-tongued bees.

The garden escape (subspecies argentatum)

plants found outside old woodlands are likely to be the garden escape (subspecies argentatum) with variegated leaves

Photograph of whole plant in flower, showing unvariegated leaves 

Woods, coppices and shady ditches.

April to July.

Perennial.

Fairly frequent in Britain especially in the southern half.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 72 of the 617 tetrads.