Nettles freak me out!

[limbomonkey]

I haven't been stung by nettles, but Q has. Through his clothes. We were going for a walk, and he fell. He got really distressed by it. Normally he's the type to fall, brush himself off, then carry on. But he kept on rubbing his leg. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he was fine. Eventually, I stopped him and rolled up his pant leg. I thought

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Poor kid -- the strength of a nettle sting can vary a lot, and some of those really do hurt and linger. I grew up with nettles (and curing the sting with dock leaves, too :), so I just instinctively pick them out when we travel in Europe, but my kids, who aren't used to it, can't seem to do the same, although they steer clear of anything that hypothetically could be nettles.

Nettle leaves and the, um, notchings? crenellations? on them are both a lot sharper-looking than mint, and really than anything else, and then with the older plants you get the flower cluster thingies, like these, and I think the way the leaves grow out of the stalk is pretty different from mint, too, they grow up much more than mint does, and of course the leaves can get a lot bigger, too, for the older plants. It can be hard to tell from a top down picture, but I think easier to tell with a real plant when you see it in front of you.

(Also, from what I recall, the really young nettles, the ones that can be mistaken for mint, don't have nearly as much bite yet. I mean, you still shouldn't put them in your mouth -- people do eat nettles in salad, but I think they soak them in water first, or something like that -- but if you touch them, it shouldn't be nearly as bad as when touching a plant that's as tall as a toddler. Or at least that's what the nettles in Russia were like -- I'm not sure if they act exactly the same in England.)

[limbomonkey]

My husband noticed the notchings and described them to Q like "shark's teeth," so I think that will help us remember. And in your picture, yeah the way the leaves come from the stalk is different. So that can help us tell the difference too. Thanks.