![]() Distribution and habitat A stinging nettle growing in a field ĭioica (δίοικος) is derived from Greek, meaning 'of two houses' (having separate staminate and pistillate plants dioecious). ![]() Urtica is derived from a Latin word meaning 'sting'. galeopsifolia (fen nettle or stingless nettle), from Europe, does not have stinging hairs. ![]() pubescens(Ledeb.) Domin, in many sources as U. dioica subsp. gansuensis C.J.Chen, from eastern Asia (China), has stinging hairs. dioica (European stinging nettle), from Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, has stinging hairs. afghanica Chrtek, from southwestern and central Asia, sometimes has stinging hairs or is sometimes hairless. Īs of 2023 POWO and recognizes 11 subspecies or varieties of U. dioica. gracilis as does the Flora of North America (FNA). As of 2023 Plants of the World Online (POWO) recognizes U. gracilis as a distinct species while the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS) continues to list it as U. dioica subsp. However, in that year the paper "Weeding the Nettles II" was published in the journal Phytotaxa demonstrating the genetic distinctness of new world nettles. Until 2014 there was broad consensus that the nettles native to the Americas, now classified as Urtica gracilis, were subspecies of Urtica dioica. The taxonomy of Urtica species is confused, and sources are likely to use a variety of systematic names for these plants. Taxonomy Illustration by Otto Wilhelm Thomé (1885)Ĭredit for the scientific naming of Urtica dioica is given to Carl Linnaeus who published it in Species Plantarum in 1753. The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs, and in most subspecies, also bear many stinging hairs ( trichomes or spicules), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that can inject several chemicals causing a painful sting or paresthesia, giving the species its common names: stinging nettle, burn-nettle, burn-weed, or burn-hazel. It bears small, greenish or brownish, numerous flowers in dense axillary inflorescences. The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base, and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals. The soft, green leaves are 1 to 6 inches (30 to 200 mm) long and are borne oppositely on an erect, wiry, green stem. It has widely spreading rhizomes and stolons, which are bright yellow, as are the roots. Urtica dioica is a dioecious, herbaceous, perennial plant, 3 to 7 feet (0.9 to 2 metres) tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter. The plant has a long history of use as a source for traditional medicine, food, tea, and textile raw material in ancient (such as Saxon) and modern societies. The species is divided into six subspecies, five of which have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation upon contact ("contact urticaria", a form of contact dermatitis). Originally native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa, it is now found worldwide. Urtica dioica, often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting) or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae.
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