Week Fourteen: Nettle

Common Name: Stinging Nettle

Scientific Name: Urtica  dioica

Not-So-Fun Fact: Stinging nettles are named for their agonizing properties. Simply brushing up against one of these plants releases a variety of acids that cause terrible pain akin to the a hundred tiny barbed needles being rammed forcefully into one small patch of skin. The author has personally been the victim of this particular plant while hiking and can state this as a first-hand account.

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Rosales

Family: Urticaceae

Genus: Urtica

Species: U. dioica

Description: The stinging nettle is perhaps the most well-known and well-hated of its family. It is an emerald green perennial herb that grows during the summer to a height of around three feet and blissfully dies back again each winter. The agent of the nettle’s painful poison is a series of almost invisible urticating hairs on the undersides of the leaves and on the stem of the plant. Each of these injects a cocktail of formic, oxalic, and tartaric acids. These compounds are found in bee and ant stings and bites, used by other irritating vegetables, and act as a muscle toxin, respectively.

Environment: Stinging nettles can be found in almost any habitat that supplies their preferred nutritional needs within the regions of the United States and northern Europe.

Reproduction & Development: As stated above, the nettle is a perennial plant that grows during the summer and dies back during the winter. It is also a flowering plant whose pale green blossoms form small clusters on the stem. The nettle reproduces either by self-pollination between male and female flowers or by sexual reproduction with others of its species. Once pollinated, a small fruit grows briefly around the seed before shriveling and allowing the seed to be blown off of its parent by the wind.

Nutrition: This nettle’s main condition for growth is an environment featuring moist soil. The author personally encountered the plant growing next to a small stream and surrounded by lushly growing grasses. It was likely also enjoying the contributions of the sheep roaming nearby, though we must not blame the lambs for the existence of the nettle. This plant requires sunlight and nutrients from the soil as well as water.