Urtica capitata

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Urticaceae

Herbs, subshrubs , or shrubs , rarely trees , very rarely climbing , stems often fibrous , sometimes succulent. sometimes armed with stinging hairs ; epidermal cells of leaves, sometimes stems, perianths mostly with prominent cystoliths punctiform to linear ; Leaves alternate or opposite, stipules present, rarely absent; leaf blade simple . Inflorescences cymose , paniculate , racemose, spicate , or cluster-capitate, usually formed from glomerules , sometimes crowded on common enlarged cuplike or discoid receptacle, rarely reduced into a single flower. Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious), rarely bisexual in partial flowers; actinomorphic , very small, (1-) 4- or 5-merous, rarely perianth absent in female flowers. Calyx absent. Perianth lobes imbricate or valvate . Male flowers: stamens as many as and opposite to perianth lobes, filaments inflexed in bud; anthers 2-locular, opening lengthwise, rudimentary ovary often present. Female flowers: perianth lobes free or connate , usually enlarged in fruit and persistent , occasionally absent; staminodes scarious , opposite to the perianth lobes, or absent. Ovary rudimentary in male flowers, sessile or shortly stipitate , free or adnate to the perianth; 1-locular, ovule solitary, erect from the base ; style simple, or absent; stigma diverse , capitate, penicillate-capitate (brushlike), subulate , filiform , ligulate , or peltate. Fruit usually a dry achene, sometimes a fleshy drupe, often enclosed by the persistent perianth. Seed solitary, endosperm usually present; embryo straight; cotyledons ovate elliptical or orbicular .

About 47 genera and 1300 species: most numerous in wet tropical regions , extending into temperate regions ; 25 genera and 341 species (163 endemic, one introduced ) in China.

Plants in this family have numerous uses. The stem fiber of some genera and species is of high quality and used to make cloth, fishing nets , and ropes and for some industrial materials . In central and southern China,

Boehmeria nivea is widely cultivated for ramie fiber and Girardinia diversifolia subsp. triloba is widely cultivated for  red huo ma  fiber. Boiled young shoots of Girardinia, Laportea, and Urtica are eaten as vegetables. Some species are used in local Chinese medicine. Pellionia repens, Pilea cadierei, P. microphylla, and P. peperomioides, among other species, are widely cultivated as ornamentals in China and elsewhere. Some genera, such as Elatostema, Pellionia, and Pilea, occur frequently in shady, moist habitats of subtropical forests and become dominant elements of the forest floor vegetation. Plants of the first five genera belong to tribe Urticeae, which is usually characterized by the distinctive stinging hairs.[1]

Genus Urtica

Herbs, annual or perennial , with stinging and nonstinging hairs on same plant. Stems simple or branched, erect , ascending , or sprawling . Leaves opposite; stipules present. Leaf blades elliptic , lanceolate, ovate , or orbiculate, margins dentate to serrate; cystoliths rounded or ± elongate . Inflorescences axillary , lax , of cymes arranged in racemes or panicles. Flowers unisexual , staminate and pistillate flowers in loose to tight clusters in separate inflorescences or intermixed in same inflorescence on same or different plants ; bracts narrowly triangular to lanceolate, lacking hooked hairs. Staminate flowers : tepals 4, distinct , equal; stamens 4; pistillode cuplike. Pistillate flowers: tepals 4, distinct, inner 2 equal to achene, outer 2 smaller, without hooked hairs; staminodes absent; style absent; stigma tufted , persistent or deciduous. Achenes sessile, laterally compressed , ovoid or deltoid, loosely enclosed by inner tepals. x = 12, 13.

Species 45: nearly worldwide.[2]

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Urtica

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 18 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

U. angustifolia (Narrow-Leaved Nettles) · U. ballotifolia (Nettle) · U. cannabina (Hemp Nettle) · U. chamaedryoides (Heartleaf Nettle) · U. dioica (California Nettle) · U. dioica dioica (California Nettle) · U. dioica holoserica (California Nettle) · U. dioica holosericea (California Nettle) · U. dioica subsp. gracilis (California Nettle) · U. dioica subsp. holosericea (Hoary Stinging Nettle) · U. ferox (Nettle Tree) · U. galeopsifolia (Narrow-Leaved Nettle) · U. gracilenta (Mountain Nettle) · U. hyperborea (Himalayan Nettle) · U. incisa (Scrub Nettle) · U. moluccana (Hawai'i Lopleaf) · U. pilulifera (Roman Nettle) · U. urens (Burning Nettle)

More Info

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Further Reading

• A review of the identifications of the species described in Blanco's Flora de Filipinas, Manila, Bureau of public printing, 1905. url p. 80.
• An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants, Manila, Bureau of Printing, 1922-26. url p. 75.
• An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions: from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the 102d meridian / by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Hon. Addison Brown. New York: C. Scribner's sons, 1913. url p. 637.
• Annotated list of the ferns and flowering plants of New York state, by Homer D. House. Albany, The University of the state of New York, 1924. url p. 283.
• Botanical publications of E.D. Merrill. [New York, etc., 1899- url p. 75.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. url p. 13.
• Check-list of the species of fishes known from the Philippine Archipelago, Manila, Bureau of printing, 1910. url p. 130.
• Class book of botany. Being outlines of the structure, physiology and classification of plants. With a flora of all parts of the United States and Canada. By Alphonso Wood. .. New York, A.S. Barnes & Burr;1860. url p. 637.
• Class-book of botany being outlines of the structures, physiology, and classification of plants: with a flora of the United States and Canada / by Alphonso Wood. Cincinnati: American Book Co., c1881. url .
• Class-book of botany: being outlines of the structure, physiology, and classification of plants: with a flora of the United States and Canada / by Alphonso Wood. New York: A.S. Barnes & Co.; 1874, c1869. url p. 637.
• Companion to the Botanical magazine: being a journal, containing such interesting botanical information as does not come within the prescribed limits of the magazine; with occasional figures /by W.J. Hooker. 2 1836-1837 London: Printed by E. Conchman. .. for the proprietor, S. Curtis, 1835-1836 [i.e., 1835-1837] url p. 63.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 6 1901 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 478.
• Exercises in botany for the Pacific states / by Volney Rattan. San Francisco: Whitaker & Ray, 1897. url p. 637.
• First biennial report of the progress of the Geological survey of Michigan, embracing observations on the geology, zoo?logy and botany of the lower peninsula. Made to the governor, December 31, 1860. Lansing, Hosmer & Kerr, printers to the state, 1861. url .
• Flora boreali-Americana, or, The botany of the northern parts of British America compiled principally from the plants collected by Dr. Richardson & Mr. Drummond on the late northern expeditions, under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. to which are added (by permission of by Sir William Jackson Hooker. London: H.G. Bohn, 1840. url .
• Flora of the southern United States: containing an abridged description of the flowering plants and ferns of Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida: arranged according to the natural system. By A. W. Chapman, M.D. The ferns by Prof. Daniel C. Eaton. New York: American Book Company, 1883. url p. 412.
• Hooker, W. J. Flora boreali-americana, or, the botany of the northern parts of British America: compiled principally from the plants collected by Dr. Richardson & Mr. Drummond on the late northern expeditions, under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. To which are added (by permission of the Horticultural society of London, ) those of Mr. Douglas, from north-west America, and of other naturalists /by Sir William Jackson Hooker. 2 1840 London, H.G. Bohn [1829]-1840. url p. 142.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 37, p. 40, p. 61, p. 88.
• Plant life of Alabama, an account of the distribution, modes of association, and adaptations of the flora of Alabama, together with a systematic catalogue of the plants growing in the state. By Charles Mohr. .. Montgomery, Ala., Brown printing co., 1901. url p. 478.
• The American midland naturalist. Notre Dame, Ind., University of Notre Dame. url p. 235.
• The Metaspermae of the Minnesota Valley: a list of the higher seed-producing plants indigenous to the drainage-basin of the Minnesota River / by Conway MacMillan. Minneapolis: Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1892. url p. 199.
• The Metaspermae of the Minnesota valley; a list of the higher seed-producing plants indigenous to the drainage-basin of the Minnesota river. Minneapolis[Harrison & Smith, State Printers]1892 url p. 199, p. 823.
• Chen Chiajui & Wang Wentsai. 1995. Urticaceae. In: Wang Wentsai & Chen Chiajui, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 23(2): 1404.
• Woodland, D. W., I. J. Bassett, and C. W. Crompton. 1976. The annual species of stinging nettle (Hesperocnide and Urtica) in North America. Canad. J. Bot. 54: 374-383.
• Woodland, D. W. 1982. Biosystematics of the perennial North American taxa of Urtica. II. Taxonomy. Syst. Bot. 7: 282-290.
• Woodland, D. W., I. J. Bassett, L. Crompton, and S. Forget. 1982. Biosystematics of the perennial North American taxa of Urtica. I. Chromosome number, hybridization, and palynology. Syst. Bot. 7: 269-281.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 9425473
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15891022
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:857470-1
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 857468-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3716080

Footnotes

1. Jiarui Chen, Prof. Qi Lin, Ib Friis, C. Melanie Wilmot-Dear & Alex K. Monro "Urticaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 76. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. "Urtica". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.