This woodland wildflower and forb is closely related to the Stinging Nettle and was classified as Urtica also. It grows in moist woods and along shady watercourses from Nova Scotia to southern Manitoba down into Florida to Oklahoma & Kansas. It has tiny stiff stinging white hairs over all parts of the plant so one must careful about touching it, though it is possible for these hairs to fall off later in the season. The young foliage can be cooked to be like spinach, and cooking is supposed to neutralize the little stinging hairs. There are supposed to be some medical uses. The upper leaves are opposite while the lower leaves are alternate. Plants often are dioecious with separate male & female plants, but they can be monoecious (unisexual) where there are separate male & female flowers on the same plant. The male flowers are in branching cyme clusters from the axis of the leaves, have 5 sepals and no petals, and are greenish-white to white. The female flowers are green and in branching cymes towards the top of the plant, erect, with 4 sepals of which 2 are larger and two are smaller, no petals. The small dry fruit develops on female flowers and is curved and egg-shaped. The caterpillars of a number of moth and butterfly species feed on the foliage, so this plant helps to feed birds that feed on caterpillars. (It is interesting that I found a male colony near Pennypack Creek in Philadelphia in August 2017 and then found a few female colonies along the Brandywine Creek in Downingtown, PA in late September 2020.)

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