Stinging nettle
Urtica dioica
Family · Urticaceae · Irritating
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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.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Streams and ditches
Also known ascommon nettle
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
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.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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