Selfheal
Prunella vulgarisLamiaceaeHerbaceous perennial
A low creeping mint-family perennial that survives mowing and flowers in short grass where taller plants cannot, which makes it one of the most practical bee plants for an ordinary lawn. Its long history in wound treatment gave it its name, and it remains a traditional-use plant rather than an evidenced one.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- High
- Pollen
- Moderate
- As a honey crop
- Not a honey source
- Which bees, and why
- Long-tongued bumblebees and honey bees work it steadily, and it supports the mint-family specialists including the blue mason bee. Its real value is that it flowers at a height a lawnmower misses.
- Worth knowing
- A good nectar source and a moderate pollen source, and unusually valuable because it delivers them in mown grass.
Flowering
- In flower
- June to September (northern hemisphere)
Growing it
- Conditions
- Sun or part shade on almost any soil that does not dry out badly. It tolerates mowing, trampling and compaction.
- Size
- 5-30 cm tall, creeping to form patches.
- Native range
- Europe, Asia and North America, in grassland, lawn, woodland ride and roadside.
- Suits
- Small gardens, Meadow or wildflower area, Containers and window boxes
- Raise the mower to 5-8 cm and cut less often, and selfheal will flower through the summer in an ordinary lawn.
- It spreads by creeping stems and establishes in existing turf without any bare soil.
- One of the very few genuinely mowing-tolerant nectar plants, which makes it central to any lawn-based approach.
What it looks like
A low creeping perennial with oval leaves and dense oblong heads of violet-purple two-lipped flowers held just above the foliage, flowering from short stems that a mower passes over.
Sources
- Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production — Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2016) · Systematic review Link
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this plant
- How to make a garden genuinely useful to beesMost bee-friendly advice covers flowers in June, which is the one thing bees are least short of. The gaps are at the ends of the year — and half the problem is not flowers at all.
- Summer plants for beesSummer looks abundant and contains a real gap. The weeks between the spring blossom finishing and high summer starting are thinner than most gardens realise, and colonies are at peak population when it happens.
- Plants for solitary beesNine bee species in ten are solitary. They are small, short-tongued, short-lived and often tied to particular plants — which makes open shallow flowers, a long season and untidy ground more useful to them than a border of showy perennials.
Tools for planning planting
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?