''Boehmeria cylindrica'', with

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s false nettle and bog hemp, is an herb in the family

Urticaceae The Urticaceae are a family, the nettle family, of flowering plants. The family name comes from the genus ''Urtica''. The Urticaceae include a number of well-known and useful plants, including nettles in the genus ''Urtica'', ramie (''Boehmeri ...

. It is widespread in eastern North America and the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

from

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, with scattered reports of isolated populations in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, as well as in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

.Boufford, D. 1992. Urticaceae, Nettle Family. Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 26:42-49. The plant is an herb or subshrub up to 160 cm tall, usually

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

, but rarely

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

. Leaves are usually opposite, though occasionally alternate, and the inflorescence is a spike with a tuft of small bracts at the apex.

Description

''B. cylindrica'' is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

and occasionally dioecious growing plant. The plant grows to be 0.5 to 1.0 m in height with opposite leaf arrangement. Spike-like hairs are in the leaf axils. Leaves are ovate in shape and 6–8 cm in length and 3–4 cm in width. Flowers are green or greenish white in color and the flowers appear from the axils of the upper leaves. Small, oval-shaped seeds are covered in small, hook-like hairs. Once mature, the seeds are dark brown. The inflorescences resemble spikes and can be from 1–3 cm in length. Male and female flowers typically grow on separate plants. Male flowers are more prominently distributed among the spikes in bunches. The female flowers are less continuously distributed along the spikes.

Taxonomy

Some of the synonyms and intraspecific taxa are: ''Boehmeria austrina'' Small, ''Boehmeria cylindrica'' (L.) Sw. var. ''drummondiana'' (Weddell) Weddell, and ''Boehmeria cylindrica'' (L.) Sw. var. ''scabra'' Porter.

Distribution

''B. cylindrica'' can be found across the North American continent into Central and South America. It is native to northeastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

through the majority of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

from Maine to Florida and stretching towards South Dakota to California.

Habitat

''B. cylindrica'' can be found in wet to mesic deciduous woodland habitats. The plant flourishes the most in floodplain and bottomland areas.

Ecology

''B. cylindrica'' is wind pollinated, so plants are fertilized by pollen carried by the wind. Thus, the flowers do not attract many insects. Larvae of the fly ''Neolasioptera boehmeriae,'' form small galls in the shape of spindles. Flowering season for ''B. cylindrica'' is during the summer to fall. During flowering season, pollen acts as an allergen to some. It is a larval host to the

eastern comma ''Polygonia comma'', the eastern comma, is a North American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae, subfamily Nymphalinae. Description This butterfly is seasonally variable. The upperside of the summer form's hindwings are all black, whereas the ...

, the

question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used ques ...

, and the red admiral.

Etymology

The generic name ''Boehmeria'' honors the German botanist,

Georg Rudolf Boehmer Georg Rudolf Boehmer (German: Böhmer) (1 October 1723 – 4 April 1803) was a German botanist and physician born in Liegnitz. He studied botany at the University of Leipzig under Christian Gottlieb Ludwig (1709–1773). In 1752, he succeeded Ab ...

(1723-1803). The specific name ''cylindrica'' is based on its generally cylindrical spikes located in the leaf axils.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15269275 cylindrica Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Canada Flora of Mexico Flora of Central America Flora of Bermuda Flora of South America Flora of the United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of the Great Lakes region (North America) Flora of the Northeastern United States Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora without expected TNC conservation status