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Lamiaceae family

Italian Hedgenettle Stachys ocymastrum

Italian Hedgenettle is an introduced annual herb, found in the lower 48 states. It grows to 1.3 ft.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 8 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
1.3 ft
Lifespan
Annual
Foliage
Broadleaf
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~13 caterpillar species

Stachys supports ~13 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Stachys in North America, including:

Amblyptilia pica · Geranium Plume Moth Aphelia alleniana · Wide-Striped Leafroller Argyrotaenia franciscana · Orange Tortrix Autographa pasiphaea · owlet moth Clepsis fucana · leafroller moth Endothenia hebesana · Verbena Bud Moth
+ 8 more species →
Endothenia montanana · leafroller moth Endothenia nubilana · leafroller moth Endothenia quadrimaculana · leafroller moth Eucosma womonona · leafroller moth Euphydryas chalcedona · Variable Checkerspot Eurrhypara hortulata · snout moth Helicoverpa zea · Corn Earworm Megalographa biloba · owlet moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees 3 bee visitors

3 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Italian Hedgenettle :

Apis mellifera · Honey Bee Xylocopa pubescens · carpenter bee Xylocopa violacea · Carpenter Bee
Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →
Wildlife & visitors 2 nectaring

Open records of who else uses Italian Hedgenettle — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

2 adult butterfly & moth species are recorded nectaring at its flowers:

Papilio machaon · Old World Swallowtail Euchloe belemia
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (15) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[11] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[13] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI
[14] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[15] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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