White Hedge Nettle, Stachys albens, is a mint endemic to California. The plant is fuzzy all over, with opposite, triangular, serrate leaves, a square stem, and a fragrant minty smell if bruised. It produces a layered spike of many small white to cream colored flowers with purplish veins. Each flower has a 2-lipped and 5-lobed calyx which is densely cobwebby.
Stachys albens occurs between sea level (0 ft.) and 9000 ft. (2740 m) in nature. It is found in moist to wet riparian, bog, seep, and swamp habitats within the following plant communities: Central, Foothill, and Southern Oak Woodland; Chaparral and Coastal Sage Scrub;, Valley Grassland; Wetland-Riparian; Yellow Pine Forest; Red Fir Forest; Lodgepole Pine Forest; California Mixed Evergreen Forest; and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland (Mojave and Colorado Deserts).
White Hedge Nettle is very easy to grow in sun (coast-high elevations) to part sun (coast-inland) in regularly watered landscape areas. It is a winter deciduous/dormant perennial plant, and in dryer gardens it may go partially or fully summer dormant/deciduous also. It spreads by rhizomes to the edge of moisture, and in consistently moist garden conditions can become invasive. Stachys albens is a larval host for the Variable Checkerspot. Butterfly.