Botanical Family · Rosales

Urticaceae

Nettle family

20 speciesOrder Rosales8+ well-known plants

Herbs and shrubs often with stinging hairs. Wind-pollinated. Includes stinging nettle, ramie (boehmeria), and Boehmeria (rhea fibre).

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Representative specimen · Urticaceae

Key pattern

Leaves often armed with stinging hairs that inject an irritant on contact; tiny, petal-less, wind-pollinated flowers are unisexual and cluster in dense axillary heads or catkins, ripening into a small dry achene.

Stinging hairs act like microscopic hypodermic needles, injecting formic acid and histamine on touch; several genera (ramie, rhea) are grown instead for their exceptionally strong bast fibre.

Identify the species

Which Urticaceae species is this?

Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Urticaceae species.

Click a node to trace its path · pinch or scroll to zoom · drag to pan

Leaf SurfaceWhat does the leaf surface feel or look like?

Glabrous (smooth, hairless)

Hirsute (coarsely hairy)

Pubescent (softly hairy)

HabitWhat is the plant's growth habit?

Herb

Tree

HabitWhat is the plant's growth habit?

Herb

Shrub

Tree

How to recognise the Urticaceae family

01
Leaf arrangement: alternate/opposite
02
Leaf type: simple
03
Growth forms: herb/shrub/tree
04
Inflorescence: cymose/catkin
05
Fruit: achene

Family identification method

To check whether a plant belongs to Urticaceae, compare the leaf arrangement, leaf type, flower symmetry, fruit type, and one distinctive marker together. A single feature can mislead; the family pattern is the combination.

Learn the full family-identification method