Also known as Annual Nettle, this wildflower gives a less painful sting than its perennial cousin, Common Nettle. Like that plant, the tiny flowers are pendulous catkins but these are a creamy white and the male and female flowers being borne on the same plant in short spikes, unlike those of the Common Nettle where the flowers are found on separate-sex plants. They bloom from June to September. The oval, sharp-tipped leaves, which are deeply toothed, are a bright green and the lower leaves are shorter than their stalks. Growing to a height of 50 cm, this introduced plant grows on arable and disturbed ground. It belongs to the Urticaceae family.
I first recorded and photographed this plant growing by Bannow Bay, County Wexford, in 2010 and am grateful to Paul Green, BSBI Vice-county Recorder for Wexford and Waterford, for pointing it out to me.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
