Flora of North America species comparison

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Urtica dioica

common nettle, ortie, stinging nettle
Habit Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous, 5-30 dm.
Stems

simple or branched, erect or sprawling.
Leaf

blades elliptic, lanceolate, or narrowly to broadly ovate, 6-20 × 2-13 cm, base rounded to cordate, margins coarsely serrate, sometimes doubly serrate, apex acute or acuminate;

cystoliths rounded.
Inflorescences

paniculate, pedunculate, elongate.
Flowers

unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different plants, staminate ascending, the pistillate lax or recurved.
Pistillate flowers

outer tepals linear to narrowly spatulate or lanceolate, 0.8-1.2 mm, inner tepals ovate to broadly ovate, 1.4-1.8 × 1.1-1.3 mm.
Achenes

ovoid to broadly ovoid, 1-1.3(-1.4) × 0.7-0.9 mm.

Urtica dioica
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Mexico; Eurasia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Plants unisexual, staminate and pistillate flowers on different plants; leaf blades abaxially hispid, both surfaces with stinging hairs.
subsp. dioica
1. Plants unisexual, staminate and pistillate flowers mostly on same plants; leaf blades abaxially bearing stinging hairs, otherwise glabrous, puberulent, or tomentose and moderately strigose, adaxially without (rarely with a few) stinging hairs.
→ 2
2. Stems glabrous or strigose, with a few stinging hairs; leaf blades abaxially glabrous or puberulent.
subsp. gracilis
2. Stems softly pubescent, also with stinging hairs; leaf blades abaxially tomentose to moderately strigose.
subsp. holosericea
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Urticaceae > Urtica
Sibling taxa
U. chamaedryoides, U. gracilenta, U. urens
Subordinate taxa
U. dioica subsp. dioica, U. dioica subsp. gracilis, U. dioica subsp. holosericea
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 984. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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