Dendrocnide sinuata is a stinging tree or large shrub in the nettle family, native to wet evergreen forests across South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It is grown mainly as a wild plant, not an ornamental, and its stinging hairs are the key hazard to handle with care.
Family
Urticaceae (Nettle family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep soil consistently moist, as it grows along streams in wet forest.
Soil
Rich, moist, well-drained forest soil or loam.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Hard
Safety
Toxic: Leaves, stems and branchlets carry glandular stinging hairs that inject irritant toxins on contact, causing intense, long-lasting pain and skin reactions.
Native range
Indian Subcontinent to S. China and W. & S. Malesia
Climate
wet tropical
About
Dendrocnide sinuata (meaning "tree nettle" with "wavy leaf margin" in Greek) is a poisonous plant called pulutus, pulus, stinging tree, fever nettle, or elephant nettle, growing in subtropical wet evergreen forests throughout Asia. Some of its uses in herbal medicine have been scientifically validated.
Where it grows
This nettle grows along streams and among understorey trees in wet evergreen forests between 300 metres (980 ft) – 850 metres (2,790 ft) but up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) elevation. It is found in the forests of the Western Ghats of South India, Sri Lanka, Bihar, Northeast India and onwards into Burma. Bhutan. Sikkim, Thailand, Malaysia and (S Guangdong, SW Guangxi, Hainan, S Tibet and SW Yunnan provinces of China)
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dendrocnide sinuata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.