Urtica parasiticaForssk. [family URTICACEAE], (1775). Fig. 66. [type as above]
Information
Perennial plant from a woody rhizome; stems up to c. 1 m tall, slightly woody at the base, covered by an indumentum of short, erect hairs; bark greyish brown. Leaves: stipules lanceolate, up to 7 mm long; petiole pubescent, up to 7 cm long; blade ovate, 4–8 x 3–5 cm, base cuneate or rounded, margin coarsely serrate, apex acuminate, with scattered stiff hairs above and softer hairs on the nerves below. Inflorescences dense clusters of flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, with narrowly triangular bracts. Male flowers on c. 1.5 mm long pedicel, globose, c. 1 mm in diam., 3–4-merous, vestigial ovary present. Female flowers c. 2 mm long, with an equally long erect filiform stigma. Achene enclosed in the persisting perianth, c. 2.5 mm long, shiny, white.
Range
N1 Ethiopia, Cameroun, E Zaire, East Africa, south to Angola, Transvaal and Natal, and in Yemen; also recorded from tropical South America.
