Laportea canadensis (L.) Weddell

Wood nettle, Canadian woodnettle

Similar species

	You are here Laportea canadensis	Boehmeria cylindrica	Acalypha rhomboidea
Common Name	wood nettle	false nettle	three-seeded mercury
Plant	2–4′ (60–121 cm) high. Stems have stiff white hairs that sting if you rub against them.	4–63″ (10–160 cm) high, and favor shady wooded areas. Stems are smooth, without the irritating hairs of stinging nettle.	6–24″ (15–60 cm) tall, with a stem that is hairless or covered with fine white hairs. Bracts beneath flowers, stems, and leaf undersides turn copper-colored.
Leaves	Alternate, up to 4 ⨉ 6″ (10 ⨉ 15 cm), egg-shaped, with coarse serrations.	Usually opposite or nearly so. They are roughly egg-shaped, with sharp tips and teeth. (More precisely, they are elliptic, lanceolate to broadly ovate.) The leaves are 1¾–7 ⨉ ¾–4″ (5–18 ⨉ 2–10 cm).	Leaves are alternate, lance-like or oval with sharp tips, 3½″ (8.9 cm) × 1″ (2.5 cm), with blunt serrations.
Flowers	Male flower clusters are white or greenish white, in loose branching clusters. Each flower is less than ⅛″ (3.2 mm) across, with 5 petals. They appear from July to September.	Flowers occur on straight spikes that emerge from the stem, in clusters of small, inconspicuous green flowers. Each spike is often tipped by a couple of small leaves. Flowers appear from July to August.	Flowers are greenish-tan, and tiny—less than ⅛″ (3.2 mm) across. They flower from July to October.
Fruit	Oblique dry seeds.	Spiky little balls.	A 3-lobed roughly spherical fruit containing 3 seeds.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Moist woods, streambanks, in rich soils	Moist, deciduous woods; wet meadows; swamps, bogs, and mashes	Moist to mesic black soil prairie, openings in upland and floodplain forest, thickets, seeps, riverbanks and lake shores, limestone glades and bluffs, fields, fence rows, right-of-ways, vacant lots, and waste areas.

	Urtica dioica ssp. gracilis	Pilea pumila
Common Name	stinging nettle	clearweed
Plant	2–3′ (60–100 cm) high, rarely up to twice that. The entire plant is covered in stinging hairs.	6–24″ (15–60 cm) high, with smooth, round, translucent stems. They do not have stinging hairs.
Leaves	Opposite, oblong, cordate, and serrate (with sawtooth edges). They are 1–6″ (3–15 cm) long.	Leaves occur in opposite pairs, each 1–5″ (2.5–12 cm) long by ½–2½″ (1.3–6.3 cm) wide. Leaves are oval-shaped and coarse-toothed, with three prominent veins and textured leaves. The leaves are bright green, usually shiny, and become yellow in the fall.
Flowers	Plants are monoecious—male staminate flowers appear on the same plants as female pistillate flowers. Male flowers are grayish yellow, with four tepals. Female flowers have four tepals too, but in different-sized pairs. They are gray-green and hairy. The flower clusters resemble catkins.	Both male and female flowers are on each plant. Fowers are ⅛″ (3.2 mm) long, greenish-white or greenish-yellow, hanging in narrow bunches from the axils of the upper leaves.
Fruit	Each inner pair of tepals encloses a single deltoid to ovoid seed.	Tiny green seeds (achenes) sometimes have black stripes.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	River deltas, floodplains, margins of deciduous woodlands, fencerows, and waste places	Wet upland or floodplain forests, crevices in rocky canyons, and shady wetlands, streambanks.

Laportea canadensis description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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