Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Urtica urens

Common name

Small nettle, Stinging nettle

Family

Urticaceae

Where found

Paddocks on shaded sites, gardens, and disturbed sites. Widespread.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.9 m tall, covered in scattered stinging hairs. Stems more or less hairless between the stinging hairs. Leaves opposite each other, 1-7 cm long, mostly 10-45 mm wide, lower surface paler, almost hairless between the stinging hairs, margins toothed, tips blunt or sometimes pointed. Young stems and leaf stalks quite hairy. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers 1–2 mm long, about 1 mm wide, green, male flowers with 4 'petals', female flowers apparently with 2 'petals'. Flowers in short branched clusters of mixed male and female flowers. Flower clusters mostly shorter than the leaf stalks. Flowers all year.

PlantNETdescription: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Urtica~urens (accessed 8 February, 2021)