Urtica gracilis subsp. holosericea

Hoary nettle, Hoary Nettle

Family: Urticaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Hoary nettle is a California native perennial found in the California Floristic Province, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert in meadows, seeps, springs, and margins of water bodies at elevations up to 3,370 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces small greenish flowers in delicate clusters. Growing with robust stems 1 to 3 meters tall, it forms dense clusters with glandular and stinging hairs. Its leaves vary from narrow-lanceolate to wide-ovate, arranged oppositely along the stem with serrated edges. The plant is generally monoecious, producing both male and female flowers on the same plant.

Habitat: Meadows, seeps, springs, margins of marshes, streams, lakes, moist areas in chaparral, coastal scrub

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: < 3370 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc but expected NCo, SNF), GB, DMoj (uncommon)

California counties: Butte, Kern, Ventura, Los Angeles, Tulare, San Diego, Riverside, Orange, Mendocino, San Bernardino, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo, Inyo, Alameda, Lake, Fresno, Monterey, Sonoma, Humboldt, Mono, Modoc, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sutter, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, El Dorado, Glenn, Contra Costa, Tuolumne, Nevada, Alpine, Amador, Santa Clara, Colusa, Kings, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, Sierra, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, Tehama, Stanislaus, Shasta, Yolo, Trinity, Solano

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.