Stinging nettle

Urtica dioica

Family · Urticaceae · Irritating

IrritantEdibleTraditional use

The plant everyone knows for the worst reason. It stings through hollow hairs that inject acid, yet it is edible once cooked and grows where the soil is nitrogen-rich, which makes it an indicator too.

Where it grows

Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Streams and ditches

Also known as

common nettle

In flower

How to tell it

Opposite heart-shaped leaves with a sharply toothed margin, covered in hairs visible against the light. Square stem. Grows in dense patches, almost always near livestock, ruins or old refuse.

What it is confused with

Dead-nettle

Lamium maculatum

Harmless confusion

Dead-nettle looks the same from a distance and does not sting: it has large tubular flowers, purple or white, which true nettle never has.

What it is for

Nettle soup and tea are a tradition across Europe, always with the plant cooked or dried, which disarms the sting. The sting itself fades on its own within minutes.

Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.

With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.

Sources

Flora-On