The tutor shares an identification that needed patience.

Early this spring, I began noticing a plant that stood apart. Like so many other wild plants, it grows on vacant properties and path edges. However, this plant has some peculiarities:

1. It flowers early in spring.
2. It has small, pink, tube-shaped flowers with a distinct lower lip.
3. Its leaves are opposite, gradually shrinking up the plant so they form a neat cone.
4. Its leaves are reddish, especially near the top.
5. It propagates easily, obviously able to cover large areas.
6. It seems to like gravel flats, where few other plants have an easy time.

Seeing the plant, I knew I hadn’t come across its picture in my field guide. Yet, I trust the local plants to be in there. I’d re-examine the plant when I passed, hoping to find a new characteristic to help me identify it. Then, I’d search the guide again without success. The pattern continued for weeks.

Keying descriptions of the plant into the web browser didn’t help, either, until one query yielded the response “nettle”. I realized the mystery plant could resemble a nettle, though not one I’d seen in the guide.

Querying “nettle”, I quickly got an image that led me to identification: the red (or purple) dead-nettle. It’s a plant from Eurasia that has established itself here.

Having identified the plant, I checked the field guide’s index for it; indeed, it’s in there, though without a picture. It’s mentioned in a paragraph as related to the common dead-nettle.

I’m excited about this identification, and will be sharing more as they evolve.

Source:

wikipedia

Pojar, Jim and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia. Vancouver:
  BC Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.