Near rivers in Dordogne the soil is often marshy and unfit for agriculture. Farmers planted poplars, to dry out the soil and have some revenue from the fast-growing wood. So, along the Dordogne and the Vézère in some places you find big poplar plantations, the trees planted in neat rows. In this rather monotonous landscape you nevertheless can find a lot of wild plants. If the maintenance is not too scrupulous, even bushes and trees of other species start to grow. Here, the wood floor is carpeted with Purple Dragon (Lamium maculatum), a perennial plant with square stems and very green leaves that can cover very quickly a large surface.
It flowers nearly twelve months a year, at least when winter is mild and summer not too dry. Sometimes the leaves are dappled, the lower lip of the flower always is.
