STINGING NETTLE

The 'stinging nettle' (''Urtica dioica'') is a herbaceous flowering plant, also known in the United States as "7-minute-itch", native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America, and is the best known member of the nettle genus ''Urtica''.
The taxonomy of stinging nettles in the genus ''Urtica'' has been confused, and older sources are likely to use a variety of systematic names for these plants. Formerly, more species were recognised than are now accepted. However, there are at least five clear subspecies, some formerly classified as separate species:

★ ''U. dioica'' subsp. ''dioica'' (European stinging nettle). Europe, Asia, northern Africa.

★ ''U. dioica'' subsp. ''afghanica''. Southwestern and central Asia. (Gazaneh in Iran)

★ ''U. dioica'' subsp. ''gansuensis''. Eastern Asia (China).

★ ''U. dioica'' subsp. ''gracilis'' (Ait.) Selander (American stinging nettle). North America.

★ ''U. dioica'' subsp. ''holosericea'' (Nutt.) Thorne (hairy nettle). North America.
Other species names formerly accepted as distinct by some authors but now regarded as synonyms of ''U. dioica'' include ''U. breweri, U. californica, U. cardiophylla, U. lyalli, U. major, U. procera, U. serra, U. strigosissima, U. trachycarpa'', and ''U. viridis''. Other vernacular names include tall nettle, slender nettle, California nettle, jaggy nettle, burning weed, and bull nettle (a name shared by ''Cnidoscolus texanus'' and ''Solanum carolinense'').

Stinging nettles are a herbaceous perennial, growing to 1-2 m tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter. It has very distinctively yellow, widely spreading roots. The soft green leaves are 3-15 cm long, with a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base and an acuminate tip.

Stinging nettles are abundant in northern Europe and much of Asia, usually found in the countryside. It is less gregarious in southern Europe and north Africa, where it is restricted by its need for moist soil. In North America it is widely distributed in Canada and the United States, where it is found in every province and state except for Hawaii and also can be found in northernmost Mexico. In North America the stinging nettle is far less common than in northern Europe. The European subspecies has been introduced into North America as well as South America.
In the UK stinging nettles have a strong association with human habitation and buildings. The presence of nettles may indicate that a building has been long abandoned. Human and animal waste may be responsible for elevated levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil, providing an ideal environment for stinging nettles. This seems particularly evident in Scotland where the sites of crofts razed to the ground during the Highland Clearances can still be identified.

Contents

Stinging mechanism

Uses

Anti-itch treatment

Influence on language and culture

References

Sources

See also

External links

Stinging mechanism

The defensive hairs (the needles) on the stinging nettle are very sharp, but also very frail. When they've penetrated the skin, they break, and a toxin is injected. Fortunately, this toxin is harmless, but it burns very much when the sting is received, and will itch equally much afterwards.

Uses

Stinging nettle has many uses. It is used by many different cultures for a wide variety of purposes in herbal medicine and is known to have been used as far back as ancient Greece. Cooking, crushing or chopping disables the stinging hairs. Stinging nettle leaves are high in nutrients, and the leaves can be mixed with other ingredients to create a soup rich in calcium and iron.^[1] Nettle soup was a good source of nutrients for people who lacked meat or fruit in their diets, and still is.^[2] The young leaves are edible and make a very good pot-herb. The leaves are also dried and may be then be used to make a tisane, as can also be done with the nettle's flowers. Because stinging nettle usually grows at nitrogen-rich places, it often contains high concentrations of nitrate which can be converted in the digestive tract to carcinogenic nitrosamines and should therefore not be used for baby food.
Nettle stems contain a bast fibre which has been traditionally used for the same purposes as linen, and is produced by a similar retting process.

Anti-itch treatment

If stung by a nettle effective anti-itch drugs are available, usually in the form of cremes containing antihistaminics or hydrocortisone. Many folk remedies exist for treating the itching, but most of them are ineffective or provide only a short relief simply by mechanical stimulation similar to scratching or by cooling:

★ Juice from the crushed leaf of dock (''Rumex'' spp.), which commonly grows in association with nettles, rubbed into the area

★ Juice from both species of Jewelweed (''Impatiens capensis'' and ''Impatiens pallida''), rubbed into the area

★ Rubbing the underside of a fern leaf (which contains its spore pods or sori) on the afflicted area.

★ Immediately rubbing mud on the affected area and allowing it to dry before brushing it clean.

★ Quickly washing the affected area.

★ Applying ice can help relieve itchiness.

★ Moistening the irritated area with saliva.

★ Smearing the infected area with a paste of Baking Soda and water, then rinsing after a few minutes. This is thought to neutralize the small amounts ^[3] of formic acid released by the tiny, hollow hairs.

Influence on language and culture

In Great Britain the stinging nettle is the only common stinging plant, and has found a place in several figures of speech in the English language. To "nettle" someone is to annoy them. Shakespeare's Hotspur urges that "out of this nettle, danger, we grasp this flower, safety" (''Henry IV, part 1'', Act II Scene 3). The common figure of speech "to grasp the nettle" probably originated as a condensation of this quotation. It means to face up to or take on a problem that has been ignored or deferred. The metaphor refers to the fact that if a nettle leaf is grasped firmly rather than brushed against, it does not sting so readily, because the hairs are crushed down flat and do not penetrate the skin so easily. However the sting of nettles has been recommended to relieve the pain of rheumatism as the effects of the sting can last up to twelve hours. The stinging feeling becomes a warm feeling on the area treated so helping the pain of the rheumatism to subside.

References

1. http://www.lowmilksupply.org/nettle.shtml
2. http://www.dochara.com/eat/traditional/nettle-soup.php
3. http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/lore.asp

Sources

★ Elliott, C. (1997). Rash Encounters. ''Horticulture'' 94: 30.

★ Schofield, Janice J. (1998). ''Nettles'' ISBN 0-585-10500-6

★ Thiselton-Dyer, T. F., (1889). ''The Folk-Lore of Plants''.

★ Glawe, G. A. (2006). ''Sex ratio variation and sex determination in Urtica diocia.'' ISBN 90-6464-026-2

See also

Nettles (folklore) describing folkloric usage, including that by the yogi Milarepa.

External links

★ Plants for a Future database entry for ''Urtica dioica''; comprehensive account with a long list of uses

★ Germplasm Resources Information Network: ''Urtica dioica''

★ Flora of China: ''Urtica dioica''

★ Contact-poisonous plants of the world