''Dendrocnide'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of approximately 40

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of plants in the nettle 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 (''Boehmeria ...

''. They have a wide distribution across North East India, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. In Australia they are commonly known as stinging trees.

Description

Plants in this genus are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

shrubs or small trees, with the exception of the aptly-named giant stinging tree (''D. excelsa'') which may reach in height. Dendrocnide species have a

sympodial In botany, sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, als ...

growth habit and are armed with fine needle-like stinging hairs. They are generally fast-growing and produce soft wood, and are usually found in areas of disturbed forest where they fill the role of a

pioneer species Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession. Various kinds of events can create good conditions for pi ...

. The leaves are

simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

alternate Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an alternative to mainstream superh ...

, and petiolate, (i.e. having long petioles or leaf-stems), and the leaf blade may be either

entire Entire may refer to: * Entire function, a function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane * Entire (animal), an indication that an animal is not neutered * Entire (botany) This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions o ...

or have some form of dentate toothing (notches or teeth on the edges of the leaf). The leaves are also often large, and may be either leathery or papery. The

stipule In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole (botany), petiole). They are primarily found among dicots and rare among monocots. Stipules are considered part ...

s are fused and

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 Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

, leaving conspicuous scars on the twigs after falling. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s are axillary and pedunculate, flowers are either solitary or in

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s or

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

s. Male flowers may be 4- or 5-merous and the female flowers are 4-merous. Most species are

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

, a small number are monoecious. Fruits are an

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

, often compressed, and may be eclosed within the swollen

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Dendrocnide'' was raised in 1851 by the Dutch physician, botanist, and taxonomist

Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Gr ...

(1811–1871) who dedicated a large part of his life to describing specimens of the flora of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

which were sent to him by his many contacts. This genus was first published in the work ''

Plantae Junghuhnianae Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars fro ...

'', in which he described three species, namely ''D. peltata'', ''D. costata'' (the original

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

that is now known as ''D. stimulans'') and ''D. coerulea''.

Etymology

The name of this genus comes from Ancient Greek '' déndron'' (tree), and '' knī́dē'' (nettle), referring to the large size of most species in this genus.

List of species

The following is a list of all 41 species recognised by

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

(POWO) , with a brief summary of their distribution. * ''

Dendrocnide amplissima ''Dendrocnide'' is a genus of approximately 40 species of plants in the nettle family ''Urticaceae''. They have a wide distribution across North East India, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. In Australia they are commonly known a ...

'' (Blume) Chew -

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

* '' Dendrocnide basirotunda'' (C.Y.Wu) Chew - China south-central, Myanmar, Thailand * '' Dendrocnide carriana'' Chew -

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pro ...

, Maluku Islands,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, Philippines * '' Dendrocnide celebica'' Chew - Sulawesi * '' Dendrocnide contracta'' (Blume) Chew -

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

* '' Dendrocnide corallodesme'' (Lauterb.) Chew - New Guinea,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

* ''

Dendrocnide cordata ''Dendrocnide cordata'', the stinger, is a species of flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to the Bismarck Archipelago, the Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea, and Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is ...

'' (Warb. ex H.J.P.Winkl.) Chew - Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea,

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

* '' Dendrocnide cordifolia'' (L.S.Sm.) Jackes - Queensland * '' Dendrocnide crassifolia'' (C.B.Rob.) Chew - Philippines, Sulawesi * '' Dendrocnide densiflora'' (C.B.Rob.) Chew - Philippines * '' Dendrocnide elliptica'' (Merr.) Chew -

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, Philippines * ''

Dendrocnide excelsa ''Dendrocnide'' is a genus of approximately 40 species of plants in the nettle family ''Urticaceae''. They have a wide distribution across North East India, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. In Australia they are commonly known a ...

'' (Wedd.) Chew -

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Queensland * '' Dendrocnide gigantea'' (Poir.) Chew -

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

* '' Dendrocnide harveyi'' (Seem.) Chew -

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Niue Niue is a self-governing island country in free association with New Zealand. It is situated in the South Pacific Ocean and is part of Polynesia, and predominantly inhabited by Polynesians. One of the world's largest coral islands, Niue is c ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

* '' Dendrocnide kajewskii'' Chew -

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

* '' Dendrocnide kjellbergii'' Chew - Sulawesi * '' Dendrocnide kotoensis'' (Hayata ex Yamam.) B.L.Shih & Yuen P.Yang - Taiwan * '' Dendrocnide latifolia'' (Gaudich.) Chew -

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the cen ...

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, Solomon Islands,

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

* '' Dendrocnide longifolia'' (Hemsl.) Chew - Bismarck Archipelago, Maluku Islands, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sulawesi * '' Dendrocnide luzonensis'' (Wedd.) Chew - Philippines * '' Dendrocnide meyeniana'' (Walp.) Chew - Philippines, Taiwan * '' Dendrocnide microstigma'' (Wedd.) Chew - Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku Islands, Sulawesi * '' Dendrocnide mirabilis'' (Rech.) Chew - New Guinea, Solomon Islands * '' Dendrocnide morobensis'' Chew - New Guinea * '' Dendrocnide moroides'' (Wedd.) Chew - Lesser Sunda Islands, New South Wales, Queensland, Vanuatu * '' Dendrocnide nervosa'' (H.J.P.Winkl.) Chew - New Guinea, Solomon Islands * '' Dendrocnide oblanceolata'' (Merr.) Chew - Borneo, Sulawesi * '' Dendrocnide peltata'' (Blume) Miq. - Christmas Island, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea * '' Dendrocnide photiniphylla'' (Kunth) Chew - New South Wales, Queensland * '' Dendrocnide pruritivus'' H.St.John - Fiji,

Wallis and Futuna Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (), is a French island territorial collectivity, collectivity in the Oceania, South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji to the southwest, Tonga t ...

* '' Dendrocnide rechingeri'' (H.J.P.Winkl.) Chew - Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Islands * '' Dendrocnide rigidifolia'' (C.B.Rob.) Chew - Philippines * '' Dendrocnide schlechteri'' (H.J.P.Winkl.) Chew - Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Islands * '' Dendrocnide sessiliflora'' (Warb.) Chew - Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea * '' Dendrocnide sinuata'' (Blume) Chew - Nepal to southern China and western

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. It is a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom. It was first recognized as a distinct region ...

including

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an States and territories of Australia#External territories, Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is about south o ...

* ''

Dendrocnide stimulans ''Dendrocnide'' is a genus of approximately 40 species of plants in the nettle family ''Urticaceae''. They have a wide distribution across North East India, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. In Australia they are commonly known a ...

'' (L.f.) Chew - China (Guangdong),

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

, Taiwan,

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

, western and central Malesia * '' Dendrocnide subclausa'' (C.B.Rob.) Chew - Philippines * '' Dendrocnide ternatensis'' (Miq.) Chew - Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku Islands, New Guinea * '' Dendrocnide torricellensis'' (Lauterb.) Chew - New Guinea * '' Dendrocnide urentissima'' (Gagnep.) Chew - Cambodia, south-central and south-east China, Vietnam * '' Dendrocnide venosa'' (Elmer) Chew - Philippines

Other taxa

In addition to the above, the name '' Dendrocnide vitiensis'' is recognised by

World Flora Online World Flora Online is an Internet-based compendium of the world's plant species. Description The World Flora Online (WFO) is an open-access database, launched in October 2012 as a follow-up project to The Plant List, with the aim of publishi ...

(WFO), World Plants (WP), and the

Global Biodiversity Information Facility The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around th ...

(GBIF), while POWO considers it to be a synonym of ''D. harveyi''. GBIF also accepts '' Dendrocnide moroidea'' , which is not listed at all by POWO, WFO or WP. GBIF sources its data for this taxon from

The Plant List The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden and launched in 2010. It was intended to be a comprehensive record of all known names of plant specie ...

, which is no longer maintained and is superseded by WFO.

References

Notes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q139226 Urticaceae genera Dioecious plants