Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yes, deadnettle is rated fire resistant by every extension and Firewise source that assesses it.
The extension services of Oregon State, Washington State, and the University of Idaho list Lamium as fire resistant. Oregon State also includes it among fire-resistant groundcovers for Willamette Valley growing conditions and in its later educational gallery. The regional guide gives deadnettle a hardiness range of USDA zones 3a to 8b, while Oregon State’s Willamette Valley profile prints zones 3 to 12.
The numerical ratings point the same way. Idaho Firewise gives deadnettle a fire-resistance score of 8 out of 10. Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service give spotted deadnettle an ignitability score of 8 out of 10, meeting their stated threshold for defensible-space zones 1 and 2. Colorado credits Idaho materials as the basis for its scoring.
The University of Arizona’s Yavapai County extension service lists deadnettle as fire resistant when irrigated and maintained. Its guidance describes a tendency to resist ignition and warns that resistant plants are not fireproof.
Form
groundcover
Rated in
Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; OR/WA/ID; Oregon (Willamette Valley) +3
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; OR/WA/ID; Oregon (Willamette Valley); Pacific Northwest (Oregon / Washington / Idaho); Yavapai County, Arizona; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Maintenance
Typed publication scope: 8 scopes across 6 cited fire sources
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01
OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.
The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.
Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in ID, OR, WA.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
3–8 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Lamium spp. · exact match.
Source location: Dead nettle profile, USDA hardiness zones field.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 30' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (with its recommendation)
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Dead Nettle profile (PDF page 9) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
Fire-resistant plant profile galleries: Dead nettle — Lamium spp. [osu-2023-groundcovers-gallery] (with its recommendation)
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants: suitable for defensible-space zones 1-2 (score 8+) [CSU defensible-space zone] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“Choose the right groundcover plants for your fire-resistant landscape”
· original source
The Dead nettle profile prints Lamium species. The gallery points to PNW 590 for complete details.
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants (Fact Sheet 6.305) — Colorado State University Extension / Colorado State Forest Service (Wildfire Mitigation Series) · 2025 · original sourcePrimary evidenceField programlineage: idaho-tree resolves to Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database
“ignitability score 8 of 10”
· score 8 (idaho-0-10)
CSU 6.305 table lists Lamium spp. (spotted deadnettle) with the preserved ignitability score.
Listed as Spo ed deadne le — Lamium sp.. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
Listed as Lamium spp. (Dead Nettle). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Native and cultivated varieties. Do Not plant Lamium amplexicaule, L. maculatum, or L. purpureum
