Urtica urens (annual nettle)
Identity
- Preferred Scientific Name
- Urtica urens L.
- Preferred Common Name
- annual nettle
- Other Scientific Names
- Urtica trianae Rusby
- International Common Names
- Englishannual stinging nettleburning nettlebush nettlebush stinging nettlecommon stinging nettledog nettledognettledwarf (stinging) nettledwarf nettleEnglish stinging nettlelesser nettlelesser stinging nettlenettlesmall nettlesmall stinging nettlesmall stinging-nettlesmall-leaves stinging nettlestinging nettle
- Spanishortigaortiga blancaortiga bravaortiga chicaortiga comunmortiga menorortiga negraortiga romanarupa chico
- Frenchortieortie brulantepetite ortie
- Arabichorreighurraykshar-el-aguzzaghil
- Chineseou qian ma
- Local Common Names
- Australiawhite small nettle
- Brazilurtigaurtiga-brancaurtiga-quemadeira
- Denmarkbraende naeldeliden naelde
- Finlandrautanokkonen
- GermanyKleine BrennesselKleine Nessel
- Icelandbrenninetla
- Italyortica minoreortica piccola
- Japankarafuto-irakusa
- Netherlandskleine brandnetel
- New Zealandannual nettlenettle
- Norwaysmaneslestornesle
- Portugalurtiga menorurtiga-brancaurtiga-quemadeira
- South Africabosbrandnekelbosbrandnetelbrandblarebrandnetelbrandneukelbrandneukerbubati (Pedi), umbabazane (Xhosa and Zulu)klein brandnetelperde brandnetel
- Swedenbrannassalaetternaessla
- Turkeyisigan out
- USAdog nettle
- Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)sitna kopriva
Pictures
Foliage
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Foliage. Berlin, Germany. January 2021.
©Alexis (alexis_orion)/via iNaturalist - CC BY 4.0
Leaves
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Leaves. Berlin, Germany. November 2019.
©Alexis (alexis_orion)/via iNaturalist - CC BY 4.0
Flowers
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Male (♂) and female (♀) flowers. Hatzenbach, Austria. November 2019.
©Stefan Lefnaer/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Foliage
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Foliage. Berlin, Germany. July 2021.
©Alexis (alexis_orion)/via iNaturalist - CC BY 4.0
Flowers
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Male (♂) and female (♀) flowers. Hatzenbach, Austria. November 2019.
©Stefan Lefnaer/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Stinging hairs
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Stem with stinging hairs. Hatzenbach, Austria. November 2019.
©Stefan Lefnaer/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Foliage
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Foliage. Szczecin, Poland. January 2019.
©Salicyna/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Leaf
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Leaf detail. Floridsdorf, Vienna, Austria. March 2016.
©Stefan Lefnaer/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Flowerheads
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Flowerheads showing female flowers with some seeds already released. September 2013.
©Harry Rose (Macleay Grass Man)/via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Leaf
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Leaves are dark green above and paler green below with toothed margins. September 2013.
©Harry Rose (Macleay Grass Man)/via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Leaf
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Leaves are dark green above and paler green below with toothed margins. September 2013.
©Harry Rose (Macleay Grass Man)/via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Flowerheads
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Flowerheads showing female flowers with some seeds already released. September 2013.
©Harry Rose (Macleay Grass Man)/via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Intrusive habit
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Intrusive habit on wasteland. September 2013.
©Harry Rose (Macleay Grass Man)/via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
Seeds
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Seeds. May 2011.
©Rasbak/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0
Flowers
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Flowers. May 2011.
©Rasbak/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0
Plant
Urtica urens (annual nettle); Plant. Floridsdorf, Vienna, Austria. September 2016.
©Stefan Lefnaer/via Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0
Seedling
Urtica urens; Seedling.
©AgrEvo
Whole plant
Dognettle plant.
©AgrEvo
Flowering plant
U.urens (dognettle).
©AgrEvo
Distribution
Host Plants and Other Plants Affected
| Host | Host status | References |
|---|---|---|
| Allium ampeloprasum (wild leek) | Main | |
| Allium cepa (onion) | Main | |
| Beta vulgaris (beetroot) | Main | |
| Brassica napus var. napus (rape) | Other | |
| Brassica oleracea (cabbages, cauliflowers) | Main | |
| Citrus | Main | |
| Daucus carota (carrot) | Main | |
| Fragaria ananassa (strawberry) | Other | |
| Gossypium (cotton) | Main | |
| Humulus lupulus (hop) | Other | |
| Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass) | Main | |
| Medicago sativa (lucerne) | Main | |
| Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) | Other | |
| Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) | Main | |
| Pisum sativum (pea) | Main | |
| Saccharum officinarum (sugarcane) | Other | |
| Solanum tuberosum (potato) | Main | |
| Triticum (wheat) | Main | |
| Vicia faba (faba bean) | Main | |
| Vitis vinifera (grapevine) | Main | |
| Zea mays (maize) | Main |
Prevention and Control
Cultural Control
Cultural control is effective, but hand weeding is not recommended because of the plant's irritant properties (Whibley and Christensen, 1982). Selective mechanical weed control methods for several weeds, including U. urens, was investigated by Fogelberg and Gustavsson (1998). Emergence is enhanced by soil disturbance and the resultant seedlings can be controlled by follow-up cultivation or herbicides.
Vegetable cropping favours weed species which require only a comparatively short interval between emergence and the start of seed production, and whose seeds can germinate over a wide temperature range. U. urens is one of several weed species that can build up large seed banks during intensive vegetable production (Roberts, 1983).
Urtica urens is susceptible to control by flame-weeding (Ascard, 1995).
Chemical Control
Due to the variable regulations around (de-)registration of pesticides, we are for the moment not including any specific chemical control recommendations. For further information, we recommend you visit the following resources:
•
EU pesticides database (http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/eu-pesticides-database/)
•
PAN pesticide database (www.pesticideinfo.org)
•
Your national pesticide guide
Impact
Holm et al. (1997) rank U. urens amongst the 200 worst weeds of the world. As with most weeds, however, quantitative data on the economic impact of the species is extremely limited.U. urens is a weed of 27 crops in 50 countries and is a frequently reported weed of vegetables and orchards (Holm et al., 1997). Once U. urens appears in vegetable fields, populations can increase rapidly. In locations where U. urens was one of the dominant weeds in unweeded potato crops in Egypt, tuber yield was reduced by 40% (Abusteit and Shehata, 1993). Where it was one of the dominant weeds of faba beans in Portugal, yield losses were 29-34% (Fernandes, 1989).U. urens is included in a catalogue of problem plants in southern Africa (Wells et al., 1986), where its impacts are listed as competition, replacement of preferred vegetation (indigenous), skin irritation, seed contamination and obstruction of access.In Morocco, U. urens is an alternative host for Leveillula taurica, the causal agent of tomato powdery mildew (Besri and Hormattallah, 1985). Carnation ringspot dianthovirus and tomato bushy stunt tombusvirus were found on apple, pear, cherry, sweet cherry and plum in East German orchards and were also isolated from U. urens (Kegler et al., 1983).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © CABI. CABI is a registered EU trademark. This article is published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
History
Published online: 31 May 2023
Language
English
Authors
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