Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Vascular Plants of California
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Urtica
STINGING NETTLE

Higher Taxonomy
Family: UrticaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

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.
Urtica
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.
Species In Genus: +- 45 species: especially temperate. Etymology: (Latin: to burn, from stinging hairs)
Jepson eFlora Author: Robert E. Preston & Dennis W. Woodland
Unabridged Reference: Woodland 1982 Syst Bot 7:282--290
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Urtica

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Citation for this treatment: Robert E. Preston & Dennis W. Woodland 2012, Urtica, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=9947, accessed on April 18, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 2024.