URTICA PILULIFERA

Family and Genus:- See URTICACEAE

Common Names:- Roman nettle

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Urtica (L) Sting

Pilulifera (L) Having glands or globular structures, bearing small balls.

General description:- Monoecious annual.

Stems:-

1) 30-100 cm.

Leaves:-

1) 20-60 mm, ovate, subcordate at the base, margins serrate or entire, petiole

almost as long as the leaf blade.

2) Stipules, 4 at each node.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, unisexual;

a) female, long pedunculate in globose, lateral heads, perianth, inflated.

b) male, spike-like.

Fruit:-

1) 2-2.5 mm. in spherical clusters, 9-11 mm diam.

Key features:-

1) Leaves, entire to serrate, but not lobed.

2) Female flowers, in long-pedunculate, globose lateral heads.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Wasteground in villages and by the coast, olive groves, cultivated land,

places where grazing animals congregate. 0-500(-800) m.

Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Somewhat

scattered mainly around the coastal areas of Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton