seasonal allergies/ viruses/nettles

[Guest guest]

>Is Stinging nettle the same as nettle?

 

Hmmmm....well, yes....as far as what you will come across in the herb trade

or in most conversations...nettles is nettles is stinging nettles....

 

but botanically, no,,,,there are lots of other related and unrelated plants

called nettles,,,

dead-nettles, false-nettles, hedge nettles,, hemp-nettles, horse-nettles,

weed-nettles, and more....

 

***What you want is stinging nettles, Urtica dioica...***

 

Dead Nettles (Lamium species), Hemp-Nettles (Galeopsis spp.) and Hedge

Nettles (Stachys spp.) are non-fragrant members of the mint family....but do

not bite and are not what we are talking to when we talk about Nettles.

 

STINGING Nettles (Urtica dioica) ands well as other nettles species (U.

gracilis, U, procera, U.viridis, and U. urens are all found in New England)

do not have the distinctive square stems, irregular flowers or other

characteristics of mints and are NOT in the mint family....not even close.

 

Last I checked, they were in the Cannabinaceae or Hemp family, along with

hemp, hops and others, including False Nettle (Boehmeria spp.), Wood-Nettle

(Laportea spp.) and probably others...these are just the ones that grow

around me. But some botanists put them in a family of their own, so...

 

And Horse Nettle is a nightshade, Solanum carolinense...not at all what you

want to use....

Oh, falling asleep..plumber is here in the morning...gotta clear more paths.

But these are just the plants growing wild in New England with the name

nettles in them,

most unrelated...but I do not see the others in the herb trade...where

nettles is pretty much only the stinging nettles...

Joanie