The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

mountain nettle

heartleaf nettle, slim stingingnettle

Habit Herbs, annual, with taproot, 3-20 dm. Herbs, annual, with taproot, 1.5-8 dm.
Stems

simple or branched from base, erect.

usually branched from base, erect or reclining.

Leaf

blades ovate to broadly ovate, distal blades becoming ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 7-15 × 5-10 cm, base truncate to cordate, margins coarsely dentate, apex acute to caudate;

cystoliths rounded or occasionally elongate.

blades narrowly ovate to orbiculate, distal blades sometimes lanceolate, 2-8 × 1-6 cm, base nearly cordate to rounded, sometimes cuneate in distal leaves, margins serrate, apex rounded to acute;

cystoliths rounded or ± elongate.

Inflorescences

racemose, elongate.

± globose cymes.

Flowers

unisexual, staminate and pistillate in separate inflorescences, or with a few pistillate flowers at apex of staminate inflorescences, subsessile to short-pedunculate.

unisexual, staminate and pistillate intermixed in same inflorescence, sessile to short-pedunculate.

Pistillate flowers

outer tepals lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 0.8-1 mm, inner tepals broadly ovate, 1.4-2.2 × 1.3-1.4 mm.

outer tepals linear, 0.4-0.8 mm, inner tepals ovate, 1.4-2 × 1-1.4 mm.

Achenes

ovoid, 1.4-1.6 × 1-1.1 mm.

ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 1.2-1.4(-1.6) × 0.8-1 mm.

2n

= 26.

= 26.

Urtica gracilenta

Urtica chamaedryoides

Phenology Flowering summer–fall, occasionally all year. Flowering all year except early winter.
Habitat Alluvial or calcareous soils, often in moist, shaded places Rich, wooded slopes, bluffs, stream banks, swamps, waste places, and fields, often on limestone or nearly neutral soils
Elevation 1200-2800 m (3900-9200 ft) 0-600 m (0-2000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NM; TX; n Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; IL; KS; KY; LA; MO; MS; NC; OH; OK; SC; TN; TX; n Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Urticaceae > Urtica Urticaceae > Urtica
Sibling taxa
U. chamaedryoides, U. dioica, U. urens
U. dioica, U. gracilenta, U. urens
Synonyms U. chamaedryoides var. runyonii
Name authority Greene: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 8: 122. (1881) Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 1: 113. (1814)
Web links