365 Urban Species. #136: Stinging Nettles

[urbpan]

Urban species #136: Stinging nettles Urtica dioica

Stinging nettles is an aptly named herb, well-armed with thousands of tiny hypodermic syringes full of poison. Brush up against it, and several of these needles deploy their payload into your skin, resulting in tiny itchy tingly painful welts. The needle is referred to as a "hair," and the structure of it is interesting: the end of the hair is a single pointed cell, which is silicized and brittle, to break off in the skin. The effect varies from person to person, some people suffering for minutes, some for days.

I don't mean to insult friends who eat wild foods, or are into herbal medicine, but some of you lunatics actually eat this plant! To the latter's credit, stinging nettles seem to possess numerous medicinal effects, and the plant is the subject of countless (5,320 according to google) scientific studies. For my part, I'm glad to have learned what it looks like, and to attempt to never come in contact with it again for the rest of my life.

Though its appearance is fairly nondescript, it can be recognized by the fact that its leaves grow in opposite pairs, and if you are observant, the defensive hairs are plainly visible. Stinging nettles is one of those species, like the red fox, that was present in North America, but was introduced from Eurasia anyway. It grows along wet areas in city parks-- such as those stream edges that may have been landscaped years ago, but have given way to wild plants, as well as drainage ditches.

Comments

[richmackin.livejournal.com]

I've eaten nettles, and since you eat them after cooking (usually boiling), the needles are mush and it's fine to eat. That said, given the plentiful availiabity of lettuce, and the even more plentifulness of dandelion, I don't get why anyone would eat it, except I guess to prove you can.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

On wildfoods, someone was talking about plucking a leaf off of a plant, deflty folding it, and popping it into their mouth.

Even if you eat it cooked, you have to pick it first!

OUCH!

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

At work once, I was letting the tapir out and he stopped on the way to munch some. It was painful to watch!

Re: OUCH!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's one of the few plants growing in the deer enclosure, along with goldenrod and thistle. They eat all the poke, all the poison ivy, all the roses...

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

Heh - I've eaten it! The dried leaves make a delicious tea. Just pick it wearing gloves!

Sadly, when cooked fresh it basically turns into slimy mush, so it's not something I've chosen to eat more than once.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Did you ever notice that most of the wild food recipes include the words, "saute in butter"? I'm guessing pretty much anything sauted in butter (essentially frying) would make it taste at least moderately edible.

But yeah, mushy, slimy greens are not a big hit for me.

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

So true! I remember thinking "Butter doesn't really count as a wild food..."

I had the same experience with marsh marigold, especially since you have to boil it in two or three changes of water to get rid of toxins. Anything boiled that long turns into babyfood. (Maybe it's meant to be eaten by Britons or Southerners, who seem to like things boiled to a gummable consistency?) ;)

Ah well, at least I know I could find a few things to sustain myself should the need arise...

[lynsage.livejournal.com]

euell gibbons is infamous for sauteeing everything in butter, and a lot of wild foods enthusiasts seem to take their cues from him. susun weed's recipes are a lot healthier.

nettles

[(Anonymous)]

i put fresh young leavs in my currys and its lovely

[turil.livejournal.com]

I found out that nettles (dried and made into a tea) are really good for alleviating some of the symptoms of bronchitis (which I suffered from for about a billion months this past summer, fall, and winter). I had my mom collect a grocery bag full of the stuff from her yard, and later went back to collect more myself. Gloves are definitely in order. And scissors, so you don't have to pull too hard.

[ladivinafemme.livejournal.com]

There's a cheese shop in Minneapolis that sells gouda with stinging nettles.

Yum.

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

So, if I'm ever lost in the woods, I know I can eat it. That's good... it's one of those plants you learn to recognize early because the buggers hurt.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

true intercultural horticulture: the first time i had stinging nettles for dinner was with a tribe that lives off the coast of british columbia.

did you know that crushed plantain leaves relieve the sting from nettles' title?

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

What - a plantain poultice of some sort?

[ssejooz.livejournal.com]

AH!! This stuff made me miserable at the zoo! It was all over, I couldn't bare to watch the animals eat it after the rashes I got from it! Nevermind listening to the visitors complain about it!

But, not that I am reading it helps with bronchitis- maybe I will give it a chance.

:)

Dock leaves...

[(Anonymous)]

As a young boy in England, I once fell down a hill covered in stinging nettles, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Incredibly painful. However, we discovered that if you take leaves from the "dock leaf" plant, a broad leaf plant that often grows nearby nettles, and wet them and rub them on the stung area, it kills the poison. "Wetting" usually involved spitting on the leaves and furiously rubbing them all over my arms or legs, but I found that it always worked. I've seen the dock leaves here in the US. Just a tip.