Talk:Nettle

2003–2007

This entry should really only treat the genus Urtica with references to the Nettle family Urticaceae and to other unrelated groups often called nettles. The material here at present should go back into the family entry, which should not be a redirect. I should be able to get to this in the next few days. WormRunner 07:14, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Basic change done WormRunner 06:49, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I've replaced "Some cooks throw away a first water to get rid of the formic acid" with "Some cooks throw away a first water to get rid of the stinging compounds", as nettles don't infact use formic acid for their sting. see Stinging nettle--212.183.134.130 15:12, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

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Nettles a source of protein? My ass! --Publunch 22:24, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

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Someone please verify the medical section. It contains some suspicious claims -- specifically, that nettles can be used as suppositories or to treat thrush. These both sound like practical jokes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.232.212.141 (talk) 04:38, April 26, 2007

a small change

Under 'Safety' I've changed 'infected' to 'affected'. The stung area is affected and not infected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Popytrewq (talk • contribs) 17:56, June 8, 2007

Contradiction

Does grabbing nettles quickly and firmly to crush the stingers work on not? The nettles (folklore) says it's a myth and neither article cites a source for the contradictory claims. -- Gordon Ecker 04:30, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

It's most likely possible to grasp a nettle without being stung if someone has very tough skin on their hands, but this means nothing if it can't be verified. I've searched around a little, and can't find anything to substantiate this as anything but folklore. And if that's the case, the section on it in nettles (folklore) should probably be expanded? Menthaxpiperita (talk) 05:00, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The stingers are positioned so that one can grab the nettle from the bottom upwards without getting stung. If you just grab it without the upward motion you are going to get stung. I used to do it when i was younger. --82.181.230.17 (talk) 21:29, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

I was taught to pick individual leaves by "pinching" the up-side of the leaf since there are fewer stinging hairs there. However, when I showed my wife how to do this, she got stung. We attribute this to the fact that I have thicker calluses than her; perhaps this is the reason that people with more experience picking nettles are able to do so without getting stung. Nettles should be fully grown in my area in a a few months; I'll try to remember to test this. 71.37.25.28 (talk) 21:00, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Please remember that original research is not considered an acceptable source of information on Wikipedia. We need a link to a reliable source to back up this claim.
Also, I have added a 'citation needed' tag for this claim in the article. (Is there a reason that there wasn't one already there?) Menthaxpiperita (talk) 06:30, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

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Inappropriate content=

There is a lot here which seems to be specific to Urtica dioica and not to the wider topic of Nettle - which here seems to equate to the genus Dioica - although why that is isn't made clear. Specifically its uses in cooking and its medicinal uses which I believe relate exclusively to U. dioca. I therefore propose to remove all the dioica specific text and integrate it into the Stinging nettle page and remove it from here unless there is good evidence that those things mentioned are true across the genus. Comments welcome here. As an aside it would also be more precise and less confusing to rename Stinging nettle to Urtica dioica to avoid some of the ambiguities - but I guess that we can leave that till later Velela (talk) 23:59, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

God idea. Be bold and just do it! Cacycle (talk) 05:37, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Various things about nettles

I don't want to just jump in here and start changing the Nettles article and I don't want people to think I'm spamming, but... I'm a retired Biology teacher who has spent quite a few years doing re-enactment as a 17th Century Herbalist. I've been accumulating material on plants that were used for food, medicine and magic and have finally got around to writing something about them. One of my first pages is on Nettles. I think there is some material there that would fit well into this wikipedia page. e.g. you don't have much on the use of nettles fibres. I have paragraphs about making string and rope from them, with pictures of the process and the product. The URL is a Squidoo one, which means I cannot put it here. If you want to have a look please go to squidoo.com and look for the Stinging-nettle-Urtica-dioica page. A search for nettles should display it. I'm known as Pan narrans there as well.

I'm happy to waive any copyright if you want to lift paragraphs verbatim or use any of the photographs. If you do use any material I would appreciate a link though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pan narrans (talk • contribs) 21:50, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Fruit

The other day i was walking down the street near a bush of nettles and noticed something odd. I looked closer and noticed the nettle has a small red berry on it. How Is this possiable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.46.232.155 (talk) 21:25, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

In the UK (including Northern Ireland) that would most commonly be from a Cotoneaster bush, Rowan tree or Holly tree growing above it dropping berries.  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   22:11, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Nope it was actualy growing on it and was there the following day i can upload a picture if you like? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.46.232.25 (talk) 14:48, 5 October 2010

Please do.  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   14:15, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

I can think of several possibilities:

• As Velella has suggested, a berry has fallen from another plant: it may be that the berry was firmly attached by its flesh having dried to the nettle, making it appear that it had grown there.
• The plant was not a nettle at all, but something else which does have a berry (can't think of any likely candidates for Britain or Ireland though).
• It's some kind of gall growing on a nettle.
• It was an animal (such as a leaf beetle), which looked like a berry. Unlikely if it was there the next day.

Where was it in the world? Where was it on the plant? Were there any others on the plant? Richard New Forest (talk) 14:31, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

The OP's IP geolocates to Ireland. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 12:15, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Problem with article title

The taxobox and most of the text on the page are at odds with the article title "nettle" and the first sentence of the page: "Nettles are plants that bear stinging hairs or trichomes on their stems and leaves, and belong to the families Urticaceae, Loasaceae, Hydrophyllaceae and Euphorbiaceae.[1]". There is already a page called Nettle (disambiguation), where a large number of plants are listed, along with other uses of the word. Many of the plants in that list look like Urtica dioica, but do not have stinging hairs. The question arises therefore as to whether this page needs to be split into two, one about the genus Urtica, and one about the "plant with stinging hairs" definition. Another option, to move the name "nettle" to Urtica dioica would be problematic because many other plants in the genus Urtica are also called nettles. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 17:07, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

It's quite clear to me that Nettle (disambiguation) is correct that "nettle" has a very wide application. It's also quite clear that the article is hopelessly confused: why does it have a list of Urtica species if it's not exclusively about this genus? At least in the UK, "nettle" is absolutely not synonymous with "stinging nettle"; e.g. Lamium species are commonly called "nettles" although the more botanically minded try to insist on "dead nettles". My suggestions are:

1. Move "stinging nettle" to "Urtica dioica". Although "stinging nettle" most commonly refers to U. dioica, actually only U. dioica subsp. dioica has stinging hairs; U. d. subsp. galeopsifolia doesn't, which is why the species is called "Common Nettle" in British floras.
2. Create an article on the genus "Urtica", using material from here.
3. Move what's left in this article to "Plant with stinging hairs".

Actually the article is so misleading, that (2) needs to be done immediately. Peter coxhead (talk) 14:28, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

I've been WP:BOLD and made a start on Urtica as a separate article. This article needs a lot of work to make it a coherent account of plants with stinging hairs. Material applying only to Urtica or to Urtica dioica subsp. dioica (the stinging nettle) needs to be moved to the right article. Peter coxhead (talk) 14:55, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

I think that moving this article to a different title is not the best solution: the material in it belongs in several different articles (Stinging plant, Urticaceae, Urtica, Urtica dioica). I propose to create a new article Stinging plant (shorter than "Plant with stinging hairs"), and then gradually move material out of this article to the four mentioned above. Finally "Nettle" can redirect to the disambiguation page. Peter coxhead (talk) 08:36, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

 Done The material here has been split into Stinging plant and Urtica; some should probably be split again into Urtica dioica or its subspecies, but the sourcing is weak in some places and it's difficult to tell what taxon is meant, so the genus article seems the best first location. Peter coxhead (talk) 16:55, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm currently working my way through the hundreds of articles that linked to "Nettle", changing the links to one more appropriate. So far I haven't found a single link which should have gone to the article as it was, i.e. to a general meaning of nettle or to Stinging plant. All should have been to either Urtica dioica or to Urtica (which includes cases where the species isn't clear). Peter coxhead (talk) 18:53, 16 August 2013 (UTC)