Common Name: NETTLE FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb [to shrub, soft-wooded tree], hairs stinging and not [glabrous]; monoecious or dioecious; wind-pollinated. Leaf: alternate or opposite, generally stipuled, petioled, blade often with translucent, raised dots due to crystals in epidermal cells. Inflorescence: axillary, 1-flowered or head-, raceme-, or panicle-like. Flower: generally unisexual, small, +- green; sepals generally 4--5, free to fused; petals 0. Staminate Flower: stamens generally 4--5, opposite sepals, incurved in bud, reflexing suddenly when flower opens. Pistillate Flower: ovary 1, superior, chamber 1, style 0--1, stigma 1, generally hair-tufted. Fruit: generally achene.
Genera In Family: 50 genera, 700 species: worldwide; some cultivated (Boehmeria, ramie; Pilea, clearweed).
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Dennis W. Woodland
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: STINGING NETTLE
Habit: Annual, perennial herb [to shrub], weak, stinging hairs 0 or few to many; monoecious or dioecious. Stem: branched or not, erect, spreading, or decumbent. Leaf: opposite, lanceolate to cordate, toothed, prominently 3--5-veined from base; crystals round to elongate. Inflorescence: head-, raceme-, or panicle-like. Staminate Flower: sepals 4, +- free, green, sharp-bristly; stamens 4. Pistillate Flower: sepals 4, +- free, outer 2 < inner 2. Fruit: lenticular to deltate, enclosed by 2 inner sepals.
Etymology: (Latin: to burn, from stinging hairs)
Unabridged Reference: Woodland 1982 Syst Bot 7:282--290

Habit: Perennial herb 5--30 dm, from rhizome, +- erect, stinging hairs few to many, non-stinging 0 to dense, generally shorter. Leaf: blade 6--20 cm, narrow-lanceolate to wide-ovate, base tapered to cordate. Inflorescence: spike-, raceme-, or panicle-like, 1--7 cm, generally > petiole, of staminate or pistillate flowers. Fruit: ovate.
Note: Urtica dioica subsp. dioica dioecious, native to Eurasia; naturalized in North America; report from California in FNANM based on an unconfirmed collection.