This False Nettle is very similar to the true Stinging Nettles, but does not have any stinging hairs. It is a common plant, native to New Brunswick-Southern Ontario & Quebec down into southern Florida to south-central Texas up through eastern Oklahoma & Kansas & Nebraska to north-central Minnesota, plus a few spots in the Southwest of the US in moist woodlands and bottomlands. It is also native to parts of Central & South America and the West Indies. The leaves are usually opposite. It is usually dioecious with the male flowers and female flowers on separate plants. The flowers are tiny, greenish-white to white without petals in spike-like clusters from the leaf axils. The male flowers are in bunches along the spike-like inflorescence while the female flowers are continuous along the spike-like clusters. The flowers are wind pollinated. The caterpillars of a number of moths and butterflies feed on the foliage so that birds and other animals can feed on the larvae.

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