Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is an edible plant in the mint family. It is extremely common throughout the United States, often sprouting in the fall and winter.

Identification of henbit is straightforward, and yet it can still be difficult to identify the young plants before flowers are present.

Henbit is an herb that usually doesn't grow any bigger than 6in. tall. It has opposite leaves with scalloped leaf margins.

Henbit paints fields pink all over the Midwest in the wintertime. By this time, the plant is usually too hairy and tough to be appealing, but during flowering is the best time to identify it.

The trouble is that mature henbit looks slightly different than young henbit, and after a whole year comes and goes, by the time it sprouts again and you haven't seen it in a year, you start to question if you have the right plant.

This is because young henbit has leaves with a stem attached, but older plants haves leaves without stems, giving it its distinct appearance.

I waiting a few years before being confident enough to eat henbit, just because there are a couple other plants in my area that I noticed looked similar. Of course once it flowers identification becomes easy. But by then it is no longer appealing to eat.

All of that being said, once you learn henbit there is no mistaking it. It just took a while to learn. And when held side by side to any of its "lookalikes" the differences become obvious.