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Great Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica L.)

Also known as Urtica dioica subsp. dioica.

Many authorities including the USDA and BONAP lump together both native and introduced populations of this species. We instead defer to POWO's treatment which separates this from the native populations, which are instead classified as American stinging nettle (Urtica gracilis). Numerous grounds for separating these species exist, including incompatibility and lack of hybridization where they overlap, distinct morphology, and differences in ecology. Under this scheme, what the USDA considers to be U. dioica ssp. gracilis corresponds to Urtica gracilis ssp. gracilis and what the USDA considers to be Urtica dioica ssp. holosericea correpsonds to Urtica gracilis subsp. holosericea. This taxon thus only refers to introduced populations. Although there are numerous recognized subspecies and one recognized variety of this species, all populations in North America belong to Urtica dioica subsp. dioica.

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Introduced
Introduced or Not Present

This tentative map is based on our own research. It may have limited data on Canada and/or Mexico, and there is some subjectivity in our assignment of plants as introduced vs. expanded. Read more in this blog post.

Although this plant occurs somewhere in each of these regions, it may only occur in a small part of some or all of them.