Urticaceae: Laportea canadensis
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Family Name
Urticaceae
Common Name
Wood nettle
Description
Laportea canadensis is an unbranched, rhizomatous, perennial herb growing 40-100 cm tall. The stems, petioles, inflorescence branches and sometimes the leaf midribs are sparsely to densely covered with stinging hairs. The simple, alternate, petiolate leaves have ovate to elliptic blades, 8-20 cm long and 5-13 cm wide, rounded at the base and pointed at the tip, with petioles 3-11 cm long. The blade margins are toothed and the surfaces are smooth to covered in short bristly hairs. The plants are monoecious with the flowers in clusters in the upper leaf axils, female flowers above, reaching above the leaves and the male flowers below, not exceeding the leaves. The minute male flowers have 5 sepals and 5 stamens and the female flowers have 4 sepals, the inner pair larger than the outer pair which often abort. The fruit is an achene enclosed by the inner sepals. Wood nettle blooms from July into September in moist woods in eastern South Dakota.
Horticulture Notes
Seed collection: Collect achenes when the surrounding sepals turn dark brown.
Germination: Seeds are dormant and need about 8 weeks of cold treatment. Planting in the fall is very effective.
Vegetative propagation: Plants rhizome can be divided in the spring separating individual plants.
Light: Partial shade.
Soil: Will grow in most garden soils.
Water: Moist to wet.
Additional Notes
Wood nettle’s stinging hairs cause a rash and itching and plants should be handled with gloved hands. The leaves are purported to be edible if collected young and steamed. The plants make an attractive green understory and its rhizomes and roots can stabilize soils in wet forest habitats.