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Urtica dioca
Stinging Nettle
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Photographer: Dr. Amadej Trnkoczy
ID: 0000 0000 0918 0011 (2018-09-01)Copyright © 2018 Dr. Amadej Trnkoczy
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INFORMATION PROVIDED WITH THE PHOTO
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date of photo May 23, 2018
latitude 46.36024 longitude 13.70266
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location
Lower Trenta valley between villages Soča and Trenta; right bank of river Soča; next to Trenta 2b cottage, East Julian Alps (Posočje, Slovenia)notes Slo.: velika kopriva - syn.: Urtica dispida DC, Urtica galeopsifolia Wierzb. ex Opiz, Urtica dioica ssp. galeopsifolia (Wierzb. ex Opiz) Chrtek - Habitat: grassland, next to a cottage, semi-ruderal place; almost flat terrain; full sun; calcareous, colluvial ground; elevation 600 m (1.970 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. - Substratum: soil. - Comment: Stinging nettle is a common plant and considered as well-known. Who doesn't know it? Who doesn't remember his tears after confronting the first time with this plant in his childhood. Yet, who really knows how its flowers look? Why, when looked at carefully, it appears that there exist two differently looking plants? - The species is growing in temperate regions and is native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America and is introduced elsewhere including higher regions of Tropics. It grows on almost any kind of ground and from lowland to subalpine elevations. The species is dioecious (notice Latin species name) - individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant. Seeds don't need winter dormancy and can germinate just a few days after maturity (Ref.3); on the other hand, their viability is still maintained after eight years of hermetic storage at -18°C. The species spreads very efficient with seeds and also vegetative by widely spreading rhizomes and stolons. It particularly quickly invades new wasteland and other ruderal places. It is difficult to eradicate this 'weed'. - Urtica dioca has highly nutritious culinary and numerous effective medical uses. Young plants cooked like spinach are not only edible, but also tasty. It is a renowned Ayurveda medicine plant. It is also said that it helps in nullifying curses put by witches, and many more…. - Anyway, the plant is mostly known by painful stinging when touched. In addition to many non-stinging hairs it also possesses many longer and sharp stinging hairs (Fig.7), which are composed of two parts. The upper, longer and narrower part brakes off when plant is touched and injects into the 'invader' acetylcholine, histamine, serotonin, and formic acid - an effective blend of chemicals to remember it for a long time. - Ref.: (1) A. Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007), p 232. (2) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 544. (3) https://depts.washington.edu/propplnt/Plants/Urtica%20dioica.htm (accessed August 29. 2018) (4) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.00285/full (accessed August 29.2018)camera Nikon D700 / Nikkor Micro 105mm/f2.8
contributor's ID # Bot_1134/2018_DSC2700 photo category: Plant - annual/perennial
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PLANT
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| common names
Stinging Nettle, Tall Nettle, Common Nettle (photographer)
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Using this photo The thumbnail photo (128x192 pixels) on this page may be freely used for personal or academic purposes without prior permission under the Fair Use provisions of US copyright law as long as the photo is clearly credited with © 2018 Dr. Amadej Trnkoczy.
For other uses, or if you have questions, contact Dr. Amadej Trnkoczy amadej.trnkoczy[AT]siol.net. (Replace the [AT] with the @ symbol before sending an email.) |
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