Stinging nettle

Images

Click on image to view full size

Stinging nettle

Stinging nettle

Stinging nettle

Stinging nettle

Stinging nettle flowers

Stinging nettle habit

Stinging nettle

Stinging nettle

Morphology

Stem

Erect, usually unbranched, stout, 4-angled, glabrous or stiff hairy, bearing some hollow, stinging hairs.

Leaves

Opposite, simple, lanceolate to ovate, 2 to 8 inches long, .75 to 3 inches wide, surfaces glabrous or minutely hairy; lower surface with stinging hairs, upper surface without or rarely with few stinging hairs; margins coarsely toothed; tips pointed; stalks .5 to 2.5 inches long, with stinging hairs; stipules .2 to .6 inch long, erect, lance-linear.

Inflorescence

Panicle-like clusters, branched, spreading, finger-like, greenish, many-flowered, in upper leaf axils. Stinging nettle can be monoecious or dioecious. When both are present on the same plant, the pistillate flowers are usually above the staminate.

Flower

Inconspicuous, greenish, unisexual; calyx segments 4, green, nearly equal in staminate flowers, unequal in pistillate flowers; stamens 4; petals absent.

Fruit

Achene, egg-shaped, 1/25 to 1/16 inch long, tan; partially enclosed by 2 inner calyx segments.

Ecology

Habitat

Stream banks, disturbed sites, ditches, moist lowland woods, thickets, fence rows; moist soil.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Several Native American tribes used the plant as a counter-irritant to treat rheumatism. They would rub it on their skin. They used stem fibers to make thread, cords, and bow strings and ate the plant tops as greens. The Lakota steeped the roots and took the liquid for stomach pains. A green dye has been extracted from the leaves.

Additional Notes