Burning Nettle
Urtica urens
Found in disturbed areas. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?
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At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 1 Virginia county.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Who uses this plant?
33CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including VA
Genus host records with ranges including VA · Urtica
- Polygonia interrogationisQuestion Mark
- Vanessa atalantaRed Admiral
- Abrostola ovalisWhite-Shouldered Nettle Moth
- Abrostola urentisNettle Looper, Spectacled Nettle Moth, Variegated Brindle
- Acronicta impressaImpressive Dagger, Printed Dagger
- Acronicta oblinitaSmeared Dagger
- Agonopterix pulvipennellaGoldenrod Leaffolder, Featherduster Agonopterix
- Allagrapha aereaUnspotted Looper Moth
- Archips negundanaLarger Boxelder Leafroller Moth
- Chrysodeixis includensSoybean Looper Moth
Show all 33
- Dysstroma truncataMarbled Carpet
- Euplexia benesimilisAmerican Angle Shades
- Herpetogramma pertextalisBold-Feathered Grass Moth
- Heterophleps refusariaThree-Patch Bigwing
- Heterophleps triguttariaThree-Spotted Fillip
- Hypena edictalisLarge Bomolocha, Large Snout
- Hypena humuliHop Snout Moth, Hop Vine Snout, Hop Looper
- Hypena sordidulaSordid Bomolocha, Sordid Snout
- Iridopsis humariaSmall Purplish Gray
- Melanchra adjunctaHitched Arches
- Melanchra assimilisBlack Arches
- Morrisonia confusaConfused Woodgrain
- Nymphalis milbertiMilbert's Tortoise Shell, Fire-Rim Tortoise Shell
- Orthotaenia undulanaDusky Leafroller
- Pandemis lamprosanaWoodgrain Leafroller
- Papaipema nebrisStalk Borer
- Phlogophora periculosaBrown Angle Shades
- Polygonia commaEastern Comma
- Pyrrharctia isabellaIsabella Tiger Moth, Banded Woolybear
- Vanessa carduiPainted Lady, Cosmopolite
- Vanessa virginiensisAmerican Lady, American Painted Lady
- Zanclognatha cruralisEarly Zanclognatha, Early Fan-Foot
- Herpetogramma aquilonalis
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimPlant details
- Family
- URTICACEAE
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Virginia rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| VA status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications