Stinging nettle

Description:

Stinging nettle is a perennial herb with a powerful root and a long, horizontal, branched rhizome. Reaches a height of 60-200 cm. The whole plant is densely covered with stinging hairs. The shoot is elongated. Stem is hollow, herbaceous in consistency, straight or ascending in space, foliage is opposite opposite. At the beginning of the growing season, the stem is simple, and in the second half of summer, axillary shoots usually develop. Leaves are opposite, equilateral, long-petiolate, simple, whole, dark green in color. The shape of the leaf blade is oblong, ovate-heart-shaped or ovate-lanceolate, less often elliptical - the length of the leaf is no more than twice the width: 8-17 cm long, 2-8 cm wide. The apex is pointed, drawn. The edge is coarse or coarsely serrated.Leaf venation is palmate. Stipules are stem, free, oblong or narrowly triangular, up to 4 mm wide. Leaf blades with pronounced punctate cystolites formed from drusen-bearing idioblasts

Habitat:

n deciduous and mixed forests, on edges, along the banks of reservoirs, among shrubs, in weedy places, by roads.