2. URTICA, Linn.
Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs, more or less armed with stinging hairs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, toothed or lobed, 3–7-nerved; stipules lateral, free or connate. Flowers small, green, monoecious or dioecious, in clusters arranged in axillary simple or branched racemes or panicles. Male flowers: Perianth deeply 4-partite; segments ovate or rounded, concave. Stamens 4, inflexed in bud. Rudimentary ovary cupuliform. Female flowers: Perianth deeply 4-partite; the 2 outer segments smaller than the inner. Ovary straight, ovoid; stigma sessile or nearly so, penicillate; ovule solitary, erect, orthotropous. Acheue ovoid or oblong, compressed, enclosed in the persistent perianth. Seed erect; albumen scanty; cotyledons rounded.
Species 30 to 35, widely spread in the temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, rarer in the tropics. One of the New Zealand species extends to Australia, the remaining three are endemic.
| Shrubby, 3–10 ft. high. Stinging hairs copious, long, rigid. Leaves 2–5 in., narrow ovate-triangular to lanceolate | 1. U. ferox. |
| Herbaceous, stout, 1–3 ft. high, glabrous or nearly so. Stinging hairs few, weak. Leaves 3–6 in., ovate- or orbicular-cordate | 2. U. australis. |
| Herbaceous, stout, 1 ft. high, pubescent with greyish-white hairs. Leaves 2–3 in., broadly ovate | 3. U. Aucklandica. |
| Herbaceous, slender, 1–2 ft. high, glabrous. Stinging hairs few or many, weak. Leaves ½–2½ in., ovate-deltoid to lanceolate | 4. U. incisa. |
1. U. ferox, Forst. Prodr. n. 346.—A slender much-branched shrub, sometimes 6–10 ft. high with a woody trunk 3–4 in. diam. at the base, but usually from 2 to 5 ft.; stinging hairs copious, long, rigid, ⅙–¼ in. long; branchlets, petioles, and under-surface of leaves more or less finely pubescent. Leaves on long slender petioles; blade 2–5 in. long, narrow ovate-triangular to lanceolate-triangular, acuminate, broadest at the base which is truncate or rounded or cordate and often lobed or hastate, thin and membranous; margins deeply and coarsely toothed, the teeth ending in a long rigid bristle; stipules interpetiolar, entire. Flowers diœcious, in axillary racemiform panicles 1–2 in. long. Perianth densely pubescent, females smaller than the males. Nut ovoid, compressed, about 120 in. long.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 354; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 333; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 225; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 251.
North and South Islands: Lowland districts from the East Cape and Kawhia southwards to eastern Otago, not common. Sea-level to 1000 ft. Tree-nettle; Ongaonga. August–December.
A very distinct species, easily recognised by the large size, woody stems, and copious stipitate stinging hairs.
