Urtica chamaedryoides

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

Interesting Facts

Common Names

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]

Physical Description

Habitat

Rich, wooded slopes , bluffs , stream banks, swamps , waste places, and fields , often on limestone or nearly neutral soils; 0-600 m (Ref. 104424).

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 2,939 meters (0 to 9,642 feet).[3]

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Annual

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Urtica chamaedryoides var. runyonii Correll

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

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

• 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 102nd meridian / by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Hon. Addison Brown. New York: Scribner, 1913. url p. 636.
• 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. 282.
• Annual report Missouri Botanical Garden. 18 1907 St. Louis: Board of Trustees, 1890-1912. url p. 155, p. 193, p. 217.
• Britton, N. L. (ed.). North American flora. [New York]New York Botanical Garden. url p. 623, p. 962.
• Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 37 1910 New York: Torrey Botanical Club, 1870-1996 url p. 580.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 2 1891-1894 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 409, p. 49.
• Contributions from the University of Michigan Herbarium. 23 2001 Ann Arbor: University Herbarium, University of Michigan, 1939- url p. 311.
• Erigenia: journal of the Illinois Native Plant Society. Carbondale, Ill.: The Society, 1982- url p. 18, p. 62.
• Field, forest and garden botany: a simple introduction to the common plants of the United States east of the 100th meridian, both wild and cultivated / by Asa Gray. New York: American Book, c1895. url p. 389.
• Flood tolerance of plant species in bottomland forests of the southeastern United States / 1992. url p. 128, p. 129, p. 199, p. 29.
• Flora of Costa Rica. .. by Paul C. Standley. .. 18 1937 Chicago, 1937. url p. 398, p. 398.
• Flora of Guatemala / Paul C. Standley and Julian A. Steyermark. 24 1952 Chicago: Chicago Natural History Museum, 1952. url p. 429.
• Flora of Illinois, containing keys for identification of flowering plants and ferns. Notre Dame, Ind., University of Notre Dame Press, 1963. url p. 159.
• Flora of the southeastern United States; being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and in Oklahom by John Kunkel Small. New York, The author, 1913. url p. 356, p. 356.
• Gray's School and field book of botany: consisting of "Lessons in botany" and "Field, forest, and garden botany" bound in one volume. New York: American Book Company, [between 1895 and 1900]. url p. 389.
• Gray's new manual of botany (7th ed.--illustrated) A handbook of the flowering plants and ferns of the central and northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, Cincinnati [etc.]American book company[c1908] url p. 348.
• Gray's new manual of botany, a handbook of the flowering plants and ferns of the central and northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, rearranged and extensively revised by Benjamin Lincoln Robinson. .. and Merritt Lyndon Fernald. .. New York, Cincinnati [etc.]American Book Co.[c1908] url p. 348.
• Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. 16 1915 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., 1900- url p. 153, p. 203, p. 330, p. 35.
• Manual of the flora of the northern states and Canada / by Nathaniel Lord Britton. New York: Holt, 1905. url p. 342.
• Manual of the southeastern flora: being descriptions of the seed plants growing naturally in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, eastern Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. 1933 New York: The author, 1933. url p. 432.
• Notes on western range forbs: Equisetaceae through Fumariaceae / by William A. Dayton. Washington, D.C.: Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1960. url p. 63.
• Phytologia memoirs. Plainfield, N.J.: H.N. Moldenke and A.L. Moldenke, 1980- url p. 230.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 203.
• Plants of Mississippi: a list of flowering plants and ferns / by E.N. Lowe. [Jackson, Miss.]: Mississippi State Geological Survey, 1921. url p. 135.
• Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Indianapolis, Ind.[s.n.] url p. 384, p. 384.
• Small, J. K. Flora of the southeastern United States;being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolin, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and the Indian territory and in Oklahoma and Texas east of the one-hundredth meridian /by John Kunkel Small. .. 1903 New York: The author, 1903. url p. 356.
• Transactions of the Kentucky Academy of Science. [Lexington, Ky.]Kentucky Academy of Science, 1923-1997. url p. 41.
• Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York: New York Academy of Sciences. url p. 272.
• Wrightia. 3 1961-1966 Richardson, Tex. [etc.]University of Texas at Dallas. url p. 129, p. 210.
• 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.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 22, 2007:

• Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database
• University of Alabama Biodiversity and Systematics, Herbarium

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2645857
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-19156
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13731232
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:857483-1
• GRIN Nomen Number: 432020
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 19156
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 857483-1
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: URCHR
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 67328

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]
3. Mean = 152.930 meters (501.739 feet), Standard Deviation = 298.490 based on 227 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.