h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Stinging Nettles - A1067168
Author: Bob McBob - U222236

Hi there!

Nice topic for an entry, this is a good start.

I do have some queries. The bit about nettles having white flowers, and not stinging, I think you might be confusing the stinging nettles with dead nettles which have white flowers. As far as I know, stinging nettles always sting. This is a good site for you to see the differences - http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/n/nettle03.html

Nettles are good for so many things, not only does it make soup, but it makes a dye, you can make clothes with it, and you can drink it. It's really good for allergic reactions. The Romans used to beat themselves with it to keep out the cold. There are lots of things that you could add to the entry, I won't go into them all here, because it might be that you only want to concentrate on one specific thing, but I do think that you need to get the fundamentals right.

Nice entry

Another feature to recognise nettles by is their squarish stems.

The white-flowered dead nettle not only doesn't sting, but is one of the species of plants that you can easily suck the nectar from the flowers. Try it - pull out the white flowers and suck the ends that were joined to the stem gently, and you will usually be able to taste the sweet nectar. (person smiling after feeding on honeydew)

The nettle soup recipe is a little biased isn't it - I remember being told it only works well with young nettles, and could well be as foul as you describe if made with mature 'b*****ds' (as I used to call them when I had to clear them from around the barn as a youth)

On the plus points of nettles they provide food for a number of species of butterfly - if you like seeing butterflies that is.

Pimms

Yeah... what they said

This is a very good foundation for an entry, but it seems to be written in the style of someone who loathes both the plants and the soup I think if you rewrite and lose that aspect it will look much better


Scout

Hi, Bob!

You have a typo in the species name - it should be Urtica dioica, not diotica. You also have the family and genus the wrong way round - it should be 'part of the genus Urtica of the nettle family Urticaceae'.

I think you're a bit too dismissive about the taste. I've never had nettle soup, but I've had a very nice nettle/herb/ricotta mixture in tortellini - the cook in my Italian cookery class said that in Tuscany they often use young nettles in any mixture that in recipe books would have spinach. Perhaps the nettles by themselves have too strong a taste? The ricotta mixture was delicious.


Azara

I drink nettle 'tea' and it's delicious.

Do you plan to work on this one any more Bob?


Scout

Personally, I'm quite fond of nettle soup.

There's a great link here with lots of info:

http://www.rain-tree.com/nettles.htm

Yes I do... in fact, I'll be doing some more research first. Any ideas, please post them here.

This is an interesting article. The fancy formatting won't survive the edit process, but it still is quite good.

You're still working on it, though, right?

Cheers!

Hey, how about mentioning eating raw nettles which appears to be one of the, er..., more peculiar sports on the British islands ?

I can't say whether this is really common but one of the German 'yellow' TV stations just featured a report

True, I think BBC Radio 4's THe Archers had a contest a while back.

Is there any reason why the writing is all in grey?

Hi,

Good subject for an entry. But I have to agree with a lot that's been said.

Also, I suggest you run it through a spell chequer

parennial, seperate, suqare-ish.

Awu.

It's difficult to read at the moment - I suggest you change the text to black.

The same topic of a show here in the USA! I think it was a show bent on "incredible Sports". Like Nettle eating and weasels in the pants. Whee.

Weasels in the pants!?! That sounds like something for the underguide!(A1103329)

I like this entry. I never knew that stinging nettles actually had so many uses; but I am still cautious as to whether to try nettle dishes!

You could mention that they are wind pollinated, and perhaps that they come in the same order as mulberry, fig and elm trees, hop vines and the marijuana plants (I just found out from Britannica).

Is it just me or is the writing really small?