Urtica holosericea

A hardy perennial nettle reaching 2.5 m tall, suited to light, medium, or heavy soils with mildly acid to alkaline pH. Tolerates semi-shade or full sun and prefers moist soil. Dioecious with wind-pollinated flowers from June to August; both sexes required for seed production.

Description

A hardy perennial nettle reaching 2.5 m tall, suited to light, medium, or heavy soils with mildly acid to alkaline pH. Tolerates semi-shade or full sun and prefers moist soil. Dioecious with wind-pollinated flowers from June to August; both sexes required for seed production.

Edible Uses

Young leaves are best cooked, making a nutritious spinach substitute or a useful addition to soups and stews. The plant is high in vitamins and minerals. Harvest only young leaves and wear stout gloves to avoid being stung. Fresh leaves carry stinging hairs, but thorough drying or cooking destroys them completely. Nettle beer can be brewed from the young shoots.

Medicinal Uses

The leaves are alterative, antiasthmatic, antidandruff, antispasmodic and expectorant. A poultice of the mashed plant has been applied to ease headaches, neck pain and sores. Fresh leaves rubbed or beaten onto the skin have been used for rheumatism through urtification — the intense irritation acts as a counter-irritant, drawing blood to the affected area to help clear rheumatic toxins, while the formic acid delivered by the sting is believed to benefit the joints directly.

Known Hazards

As every other species of Urtica, it has stinging hairs that irritate the skin. This is prevented by cooking it and using the young leaves instead, because older leaves develop cystoliths which act as an irritant to the kidneys.

Distribution

It is a temperate plant.

Where It Grows

North America, USA,

Cultivation

We have very little information on this species and do not know if it will be hardy in Britain, though judging by its native range it should succeed outdoors in most parts of the country. The following notes are based on the general needs of the genus. Prefers a nitrogen-rich soil. The best fibre is produced when plants are grown on deep fertile soils. Dioecious. Male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.

Propagation

Sow seed in spring in a cold frame, barely covering it. Prick seedlings into individual pots when large enough to handle and plant out in summer. Division can be done at almost any time in the growing season — plant divisions straight into their permanent positions.

Other Uses

An infusion of the leaves makes a hair wash used as a tonic and antidandruff treatment. A strong flax-like fibre from the stems is used for string, cloth and good quality paper, harvested as the plant begins to die down in early autumn and retted before the fibres are extracted. The following uses are listed for U. dioica but are considered almost certainly applicable here too. Residual plant matter after fibre extraction provides biomass for manufacturing sugar, starch, protein and ethyl alcohol. Seed oil is used as an illuminant. The plant is an essential ingredient of 'QR' herbal compost activator, a dried powdered herbal blend that speeds bacterial activity in compost heaps. Leaves make a valuable compost addition and can be soaked for 7–21 days in water to make a nutritious liquid plant feed that also works as an insect repellent and foliar feed. The growing plant raises the essential oil content of neighbouring plants, improving their resistance to insect pests. Flies are repelled, and freshly cut stems have been placed in food cupboards for this effect. Plant juice or a decoction boiled in strong salt solution curdles milk as a rennet substitute; rubbed into leaky wooden tub seams it coagulates and seals them. A permanent green dye comes from a decoction of leaves and stems; a yellow dye from the root boiled with alum.

Nutrition

References (2)

• Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
• Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 4:25. 1848

More from Urticaceae

Boehmeria japonica

Boehmeria longispica

Boehmeria macrophylla

Chalnesisnu, African jolanettle

Boehmeria nipononivea

Boehmeria nivea

Ramie

Boehmeria penduliflora