Hedge Nettle

Sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.

Herbs perennial. Stems erect or slightly flexuous, 30-120 cm, branched toward apex, hispid, angles glandular puberulent. Petiole slender, 3-6.5 cm; stem leaf blades ovate-cordate, 8-12 × 5-9.5 cm, adaxially shiny, appressed villous-hispid, abaxially gray-green, yellowish glandular, villous-hispid along veins, base cordate, margin coarsely callose crenate-serrate, apex acuminate. Spikes 10-20 cm; verticillasters 6(-8)-flowered, widely spaced; lower floral leaves petiolate, 10-15 × 2-4 mm, margin dentate; upper floral leaves sessile, oblong-lanceolate, slightly longer than verticillasters, margin entire; bracteoles minute or absent. Pedicel ca. 1 mm. Calyx tubular-campanulate, ca. 7 mm, spreading hispid, glandular puberulent, 10-veined, accessory veins inconspicuous; teeth triangular-lanceolate, 2-3 mm, subequal, apex spinescent; fruiting calyx slightly saccate-dilated. Corolla red to purple, ca. 1.4 cm, sparsely puberulent; tube straight, ± saccate; upper lip straight, oblong, ca. 5 × 3 mm; lower lip spreading, ca. 7 × 6 mm; middle lobe subcircular, emarginate; lateral lobes ovate. Filaments villous below middle. Style nearly exserted. Nutlets dark brown, triquetrous, ovoid, glabrous. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug.

Xinjiang (cultivated in other provinces) [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia; SW Asia, Europe].

Coniferous forests, thickets, alpine meadows; 1700 m.