Are These Purple Flowers In Michigan Fields Really A Flower?

I grew up out in the country, with my house surrounded by cornfields on all sides. As a kid, I collected an ungodly amount of pretty yellow dandelions for my mom thinking I was giving her a token of my admiration. She would put them in vases and everything. It wasn't until I got older that I learned those are weeds. We were giving our mother a literal weed, and she took it in stride.

Bless her heart.

I say this because some plants can look like pretty flowers but end up being good-for-nothing weeds. I recently learned that two of the prominent plants around Michigan are not flowers as I also thought and are yet another weed.

Henbit and Purple Deadnettle

With its pretty purple shoots, it's fair to assume these plants are flowers, right? Wrong. The Henbit and the Purple Deadnettle, according to Michigan State University, are common weeds that usually appear in early spring (so right now). You've probably seen purple deadnettles in your flowerbeds, or in swathes in open fields. This is because these weeds are usually found in fields, gardens, and along buildings. 

The purple deadnettle is known for its purple-tinged leaves and light-purple flowers.

The henbit doesn't have large leaves like the purple deadnettle. They have shorter leaves and long purple flowers.

Even though these are weeds, they have benefits. These weeds play an important role as a pollinator. Pollination is done by bumblebees and other bees, but the purple deadnettle is able to self-pollinate.