Stems glabrous or strigose, with a few stinging hairs. Leaf blades abaxially bearing stinging hairs, otherwise glabrous or puberulent, adaxially without or rarely with a few stinging hairs. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate mostly on same plant. 2 n = 26, 52. Flowering late spring-summer. Alluvial woods, margins of deciduous woodlands, fencerows, waste places; 0-3100 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo. Native Americans used Urtica dioica subsp. gracilis medicinally for rheumatism, upset stomach,childbirth, paralysis, fevers, colds, tuberculosis, and as a general tonic, and as a witchcraft medicine (D. E. Moerman 1986).

LEAVES: Lower surface of leaves glabrous to puberulous, with stinging hairs. NOTES: See also parent taxon. 2n = 26, 52. Alluvial woods, margins of deciduous woodlands, fencerows, waste places: Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Graham, Navajo cos.; to 3000 m (10,000 ft); late spring summer; across Canada and the n U.S. from AK to the Atlantic, s in the mts. and along the coasts in the U.S., n Mex. REFERENCES: Boufford, David E. 1992. Urticaceae. Ariz.-Nev. Acad. Sci. 26(1)2.