Stinging Nettle

(Urtica dioica)

 

   

 

Color Photographs: Copyright Nearctica.com, Inc.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica L.)

Alien: Native of Europe and Asia.

Identification: Flowers green, minute, arranged in a series of branching spikes arising from the leaf axils. Male and female flowers commonly on different plants. Stems and leaves covered with coarse, stinging hairs. Leaves in opposite pairs, heart-shaped with tapering tips and coarsely toothed outer margins. Plant 2 to 4 feet in height.

Distribution: Throughout North America.

Habitat: Stinging Nettle likes damp areas and is commonly found in damp spots in woods and in a variety of wet disturbed areas such as fields and along roadsides.

Flowering period: June to September.

Similar Species: Clearweed and False Nettle lack stinging hairs. Wood Nettle is similar to Wood Nettle. However Wood Nettle has alternate leaves and the stem zig-zags.

Comments: Contact with the stinging hairs is highly inadvisable. The pain is unpleasant, to say the least.

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