Lately it has turned cold as if deep winter, then warm again — the weather remains erratic. One hesitates over what to wear outside. Yet looking at wildflowers, bloom may be early or late, but spring and early summer are surely on their way. Near Palaceside Building in Takebashi, Tokyo, in the thicket on the west side of the new meteorological observation field in Kitanomaru Park, odoricum (lamium) is in full bloom. White and pink flowers sway in the breeze under the trees.
Odoricum was named because the flower resembles a dancer wearing a sedge hat. Look closely and you see a woman in a pale purple hem and white kimono, facing outward in a circle as if dancing — more Awa Odori than the delicate "Dancing Girl of Izu" played on screen from Kinuyo Tanaka to Momoe Yamaguchi. Yet the flowers under mint-like leaves give a fresh feeling.
Flower buds, young leaves, and flowers can be tempura, or lightly boiled for salads, ohitashi, vinegared dishes — like mountain vegetables. Extracts from buds, leaves, and flowers are said to prevent rough skin and inflammation and even help hair growth. Dried whole plants are used as bath herbs for lower back pain and bruises — a plant rich in medicinal value.
In English, however, it is dead nettle — "dead nettle." Nettle stems have hair-like spines with fluid sacs at the base; when the sac breaks on contact, the fluid irritates skin. Odoricum does not cause rash, hence "dead." Still, what an unpoetic name. The Japanese name is far more evocative — it makes you think of dancers and want to grow it in the garden.