nettle family

American  

noun

1. the plant family Urticaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, trees, and shrubs, sometimes covered with stinging hairs, having alternate or opposite simple leaves, clusters of small flowers, and small, dry, seedlike fruit, and including baby's-tears, clearweed, nettles of the genus Urtica, and ramie.

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Example Sentences

It is a colossus of the forest, and belongs to the nettle family.

From My Friends the Savages Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) by Sanpietro, I. Stone

This plant resembles ramie and belongs to the nettle family also, but it is without the troublesome resin of the ramie.

From Textiles and Clothing by Watson, Kate Heintz

Ramie is a member of the nettle family and attains a height of from four to eight feet.

From Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades by Dooley, William H. (William Henry)

Bœhmeria nivea.—A plant of the nettle family, which yields the fiber known as Chinese grass.

From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William