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Dwarf Nettle
Urtica urens
Urtica urens, commonly known as annual nettle, dwarf nettle, small nettle, dog nettle, burning nettle, or bush nettle is a herbaceous annual flowering plant species in the nettle family Urticaceae. It is native to Eurasia, including the Himalayan regions of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Sikkim in India and can be found in North America, New Zealand and South Africa as an introduced species. It is reputed to sting more strongly than Urtica dioica (common nettle).
From the article Urtica urens on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Urtica urens is an annual plant, monoecious (with male and female flowers on the same plant) and generally much shorter. It can be distinguished from the perennial and dioecious U. dioica (stinging nettle) by its more rounded leaves with coarser, deeper toothing and with the terminal tooth of similar length to the adjacent teeth. The lower leaves are shorter than their longer petioles and have stinging hairs only.
Range & habitat
The native distribution of Urtica urens includes most of Europe except the British Isles, northern Asia, north and northwest Africa. In the British Isles, Urtica urens is an archaeophyte, an ancient introduction. It has been introduced to all other continents of the world except Antarctica.
Wikipedia: “Distribution”
What it does
In Europe, Urtica urens is one of the food plants of the small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae). In New Zealand it is also a food plant for the New Zealand red admiral butterfly (Bassaris gonerilla, syn. Vanessa gonerilla, syn. Papilio gonerilla), and the Australian / New Zealand yellow admiral butterfly (Vanessa itea).
Wikipedia: “Organism interactions”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Urtica urens in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 53315.