Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Hawai'i stingingnettle

Hesperocnide sandwicensis

Hawai'i stingingnettle
Photo: Grigory Heaton, CC BY-SA 4.0

Hawai'i stingingnettle is a rare annual nettle found only on the island of Hawai'i, growing 20 to 60 cm tall with hairs that sting. It is a wild species of subalpine forest understory and is not typically grown as a garden or house plant.

Family
Urticaceae (Nettle family)
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep soil lightly moist during the growing season, as it grows in forest understory conditions.
Soil
Well-drained, humus-rich volcanic or forest soil.
Temperature
Cool subalpine conditions; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Hard
Safety
Toxic: Leaves and stems bear stinging hairs that cause a painful sting on contact.
Native range
Hawaiian Is.
Climate
wet tropical

About

Hesperocnide sandwicensis, the Hawai'i stingingnettle, is a rare species of nettle endemic to the island of Hawai'i. Less than 1000 plants from only 3 occurrences are estimated to exist due to grazing pressure from invasive sheep, goats, and pigs.

The closest relative of H. sandwicensis, and the only other species in the genus Hesperocnide, is the California endemic Hesperocnide tenella.

Where it grows

Hesperocnide sandwicensis grows only in the understory of subalpine dry forests on the volcanic slopes of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualālai on the big island of Hawai'i.

Other Hesperocnide plants

Western stingingnettle · Stingingnettle

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hesperocnide sandwicensis 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…