Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Rosales > Urticaceae > Urtica > Urtica dioica

Urtica dioica (California nettle; slender nettle; stinging nettle; tall nettle)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Urtica dioica, often called common nettle or stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting), is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. It is native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and western North America, and introduced elsewhere. 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 when contacted by humans and other animals. The plant has a long history of use as a source of medicine, food, and fibre.
View Wikipedia Record: Urtica dioica

Infraspecies

Urtica dioica afghanica
Urtica dioica cypria
Urtica dioica dioica (Stinging Nettle)
Urtica dioica gansuensis
Urtica dioica kurdistanica
Urtica dioica pubescens
Urtica dioica sondenii
Urtica dioica var. glabrata
Urtica dioica var. gracilis
Urtica dioica var. hispida
Urtica dioica var. holosericea
Urtica dioica var. sarmatica

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Dioecious
Hazards [2]  The leaves of the plants have stinging hairs, causing irritation to the skin; This action is neutralized by heat or by thorough drying, so the cooked leaves are perfectly safe and nutritious; However, only young leaves should be used because older leaves develop gritty particles called cystoliths which act as an irritant to the kidneys;
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]  A strong flax-like fibre is obtained from the stems; Used for making string and cloth; It is harvested as the plant begins to die down in early autumn and is retted before the fibres are extracted; The fibre is produced in less abundance than from flax (Linun usitatissimum) and is also more difficult to extract; The plant matter left over after the fibres have been extracted are a good source of biomass and have been used in the manufacture of sugar, starch, protein and ethyl alcohol; An oil obtained from the seeds is used as an illuminant; An essential ingredient of 'QR' herbal compost activator; This is a dried and powdered mixture of several herbs that can be added to a compost heap in order to speed up bacterial activity and thus shorten the time needed to make the compost; The leaves are also an excellent addition to the compost heap; This liquid feed is both insect repellent and a good foliar feed; The growing plant increases the essential oil content of other nearby plants, thus making them more resistant to insect pests; Although many different species of insects feed on nettles, flies are repelled by the plant so a bunch of freshly cut stems has been used as a repellent in food cupboards; The juice of the plant, or a decoction formed by boiling the herb in a strong solution of salt, will curdle milks and thus acts as a rennet substitute; This same juice, if rubbed into small seams of leaky wooden tubs, will coagulate and make the tub watertight again; A hair wash is made from the infused leaves and this is used as a tonic and antidandruff treatment; A beautiful and permanent green dye is obtained from a decoction of the leaves and stems; A yellow dye is obtained from the root when boiled with alum;
Height [2]  3.936 feet (1.2 m)
Width [2]  39 inches (1 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [3]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [3]  Rich
Soil Moisture [3]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Urtica dioica

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Providers

Pollinated by 
Anaspis frontalis[6]
Bicellaria subpilosa[6]
Coenonympha pamphilus (Small Heath Butterfly)[6]
Eoseristalis pertinax[6]
Tenthredopsis coquebertii[6]

Consumers

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Ecology of Commanster
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 9Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 10Food eaten by the free-living European bison in Białowieża Forest, Zofia GĘBCZYŃSKA, Marek GĘBCZYŃSKI and Ewa MARTYNOWICZ, Acta Theriologica 36 (3-4), 307-313, 1991.
♦ 11del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 12Spermophilus franklinii, Andrea C. Ostroff and Elmer J. Finck, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 724, pp. 1–5 (2003)
♦ 13Butterflies of Canada, Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0