URTICACEAE - Nettle Family

Mostly herbs, rarely subshrubs and small trees

Leaves opposite or alternate, simple, stipules present, stinging hairs present in some. The hair acts like a miniature hypodermic needle an animal brushes against it, injecting its toxin into the skin.

Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic, in cymes, heads or solitary, actinomorphic

Plants monoecious or dioecious

Fruit an achene or fleshy drupe

Seeds with endosperm

45 genera, 700 species in tropics and temperate areas

The Urticaceae is divided into five subfamilies on the presence or absence of stinging hairs and floral characters.

Economic importance - some houseplants, tips of Urtica can be boiled and eaten, Ramie is used for fiber

Medicinal uses - Urtica leaf tea used as a "blood purifier" and "blood builder", freeze-dried leaves used to treat allergies, nettle stings used to relieve arthritis

Diagnostic characters - herbs with stinging hairs and highly reduced flowers

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FLOWERING PLANT GATEWAY