354. LABIATAE (MINT FAMILY) 
HEMP NETTLE 
Galeépsis Tetrahit, L. 
Other English names: Dog Nettle, Bee Nettle, Stinging Nettle, Wild 
Hemp, Bastard Hemp. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to August. 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: Newfoundland to British Columbia and Alaska, southward 
to North Carolina and Michigan. 
Habitat: Fields, pastures, roadsides, and waste places. 
Grazing cattle shun this weed, and 
gloves are needed in handling it when 
full-grown. Stem one to three feet 
tall, stout, four-sided, swollen below 
the joints, much branched and spread- 
ing, bristling with prickly hairs. The 
opposite leaves are ovate, long- 
pointed, coarsely toothed, bristly- 
hairy on both sides, and with bristly 
petioles. Flowers in a dense, short, 
leafy-bracted terminal spike and in 
axillary clusters; corolla nearly an 
inch long, pink or pale purple, with a 
stiff, concave entire upper lip, longer 
than the lower one, which has three 
lobes; the tube is about twice the 
length of the bristly calyx, which has 
five long, nearly equal awl-like points. 
Fic. 245.— Hemp Nettle (Gale- Seeds four small, flattened, ovoid 
apes Telvaniihy Xt nutlets. (Fig. 245.) 
Means of control 
Prevent reproduction by close cutting while young. If nearing 
maturity when cut the weed should be removed from the ground, 
as the large, swollen stems contain enough nutriment to ripen the 
seed. , 
