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Urtica sandwicensis

Wedd. (1856)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Rosids Order: Rosales Family: Urticaceae Genus: Urtica

hesperocnide

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect annual herbs 20–60 cm tall.

Stems: Slender, usually branched, hispid throughout with stiff, erect, stinging hairs, also short–hirtellous, more densely so when young, watery sap.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades lanceolate to oblong–lanceolate, 1.5–7 cm long, 0.9–2.5 cm wide. Terminal tooth oblong with rounded apex. Base truncate to very broadly cuneate. Surfaces with stinging hairs. Margins very coarsely serrate–incised. 3–5 veined. Petioles 0.8–2.5 cm long. Stipules minute, oblong, lateral, distinct.

Flowers: Flowers in axillary, sessile, cymose glomerules, both sexes intermixed; bracts absent. Flowers unisexual, in clusters 0.2–0.5 cm long, sexes mixed but predominantly pistillate, actinomorphic. Calyx of staminate flowers 4-lobed, the lobes equal, imbricate, depressed in bud, ca. 0.5–0.6 mm long, very sparsely pubescent with short, hooked hairs; pistillate Calyx ca. 1 mm long, swelling slightly in fruit, pubescent with short, hooked hairs, evenly short–hispid, apex nearly closed. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens 4 in staminate flowers; filaments incurved in bud, elastically reflexed when pollen is shed; anthers reniform, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior (pistillate flowers), pseudomonomerous, straight, 1-celled; ovule 1, basal; style 1; stigma sessile, capitate–penicillate, persistent. Staminate calyx ovary vestigial and sterile.

Fruit: Achenes ovoid; compressed; ca. 1.1 mm long. Seeds 1 per achene.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Subalpine woodland or alpine areas.

Elevation Range: 1,780–2,600 m.

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Statewide Status

Endemic

Island Status

Hawai'i Endemic

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Notes

  • Description digitized by Tiffany Flood
  • Description digitized from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii

Bibliography

Name Published In: Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. 9: 67 (1856)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:1301 (H)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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