Urtica dioica (stinging nettle)
It’s late nettle season around here. Even in the city, nettles abound in the green spaces. In the Medicinal Herb Garden, there are two types of nettle. In section E, from the eastern USA and Canada, is Laportea canadensis (eastern wood nettle). In the woods north of Cascara Circle is the more cosmopolitan Urtica dioica (stinging nettle) which has been used to treat hay fever, joint pain, urinary problems and many other conditions. They’re not in the same genus but they are in the same family, the Urticaceae. Stinging nettle grows throughout North America, Eurasia and North Africa. Both species sting and for most people, the irritation caused is minor and brief. Some people use stinging nettle as a treatment for the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. These articles shine some light on current research:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11962753
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014579398016226
Around the world, stinging nettles have been put to many other medicinal, food, fiber and dye uses. You can find a lot of entries on nettles in anthropologist Daniel Moerman’s book Native American Ethnobotany, an ethnographic record of plant use by Native Americans in North America. This excellent site allows you to look up any plant in his book:
Like goji berries, burdock root, garlic and many other edibles, nettle is both medicine and food. It makes a deliciously earthy tisane, is excellent as steamed greens or in pesto, and in soups it adds a distinctive umami, like a rich, buttery sencha steeped in a broth of dried Boletus edulis (porcini). I’ve found that hanging nettles to dry for a few days in a cool place gives them a richness in an infusion that neither fresh nor fully dry quite equals. Nettles are an excellent spring tonic herb, full of vitamins and minerals. If you haven’t tried them, there’s still time. Find some moist woods and start looking. Or head to higher elevation where they come up later. And don’t forget your gloves.
careful when picking
green tufts of tender spring growth
easily nettled
See you in the garden.