Stinging Nettle

Scientific name: Urtica chamaedryoides, U. dioica, U. urens
Abundance: common
What: leaves and young stems
How: cooked greens, tea
Where: woods, borders, abandoned areas, woods, sunny and shady areas
When: spring, early summer
Nutritional Value: Rich in vitamins A,C,D,K, many minerals, and high in protein.
Dangers: can cause skin irritations, handle while wearing leather gloves. Cook to remove stingers before consuming.

Medicinal Summary
Leaves - anti-inflammatory; diuretic; local anesthetic; anti-diarrheal; hemostat (tisane, tincture)

Close-up of stinging nettles (Urtica chamaedryoides).
StingingNettle1

Patch of stinging nettles (Urtica chamaedryoides).
StingingNettle2

Young stinging nettles (Urtica chamaedryoides). They are tender and tasty while still this small.
stingingnettle

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
StingingNettle

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
StingingNettle

Stinging nettles are known throughout the world as a very nutritious and highly medicinal plant though you must be careful when harvesting them. The stem and leaves are covered with tiny hollow needles filled with formic acid, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, histamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine. Touching any of these needles will inject you with these, which causes an extremely painful burning sensation.

These plants are easy to identify by their hairy, square stems and the burning sensation they cause when grabbed with the bare hand. Sidenote: don't grab them with your bare hand, it really hurts! If you do grab them with your bare hand the sting can be soothed by rubbing curled dock, plantain, or other astringent leaves on the area.

The young stems and leaves should be placed in boiling water for approximately sixty seconds to remove the stinging agents before eating young nettle plants. Alternatively, steeping the leaves in hot water creates a very healthy tea loaded with vitamins and minerals.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Privacy & Amazon Paid Promotion Statement

I use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit this website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.


I participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. The prices you pay for the item isn't affected, my sales commission comes out of Amazon's pocket.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.