Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Carnarvon Station Bush Heritage Reserve, via Augathella, Qld

Plant. Photo: Don Wood, Carnarvon Station Bush Heritage Reserve, via Augathella, Qld

Fruiting stem and leaves. Photo: Leo Michels, Germany

Young plants. Photo: Valter Jacinto, Portugal

Common Name

Small Nettle, Stinging Nettle, Lesser Stinging Nettle, Dwarf Nettle

Family

Urticaceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb to 70cm tall, covered in stinging hairs. Leaves opposite each other, flat, 1-7cm long, 10-40mm wide, almost hairless between the stinging hairs, with toothed edges. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers small (less than 3mm across), green, with 4 'petals', in short branched clusters of mixed male and female flowers.

Differs from Urtica incisa in that it is an annual forb, and the leaf blades are usually 1-5cm long, and and the inflorescence is branched and shorter than the leaf stalk.

Description and photo in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales pages 210-211

PlantNETdescription:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Urtica~urens