Transformational Gardening


Small-Spike False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica): Images

Date Location Notes Images
June 28, 2012 Southeastern, New Hampshire This is a fairly common plant. But I had avoided trying to identify it for years because I never saw the flowers. There is only one species in the Boehmeria genus (in New England). But there is another genus in the same family with very similar, non-stinging plants: Pilea. The flowers of Small-Spike False Nettle are a spike, while the flowers of Pilea species are a panicle. In addition, the cystoliths (concentration of calcium carbonate appearing as minute segments on the leaf) are rounded in Small-Spike False Nettle but linear in Pilea species.