The Urban Pantheist

An orange lichen (probably Xanthoria parietina) growing on a rubbish bin in Runnymede.

Runnymede is a meadow along the Thames where many historical events are commemorated, most notably the sealing of the Magna Carta. When we visited there were hundreds of people enjoying the park in the nice weather. There were lots of exotic and native water birds, and lots of interesting insects.

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Stinging nettles.

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.