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Project Noah Nature School
Urtica dioica
The plant has many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on its leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles that inject histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation when contacted by humans and other animals. Stinging nettle is a dioecious herbaceous perennial, 1 to 2 m (3 to 7 ft) tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter.
Temperate forest, native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America
I brushed up against this stinging nettle while I was trying to photograph a mushroom. It definitely stings!
Spotted on May 21, 2011
Submitted on May 22, 2011
2 Comments
Thanks! Yeah, exactly, eh! They don't look like they could do any damage.
Nice shots of those little trichomes... man do those things hurt!! It's amazing how innocuous they look, they don't even seem like they could penetrate skin.