Description: Trees or shrubs with soft wood and with rigid stinging hairs; dioecious.
Leaves alternate, simple, toothed or entire; stipules fused, falling and leaving conspicuous scars encircling the stem.
Inflorescence axillary, paniculate, flowers solitary or in small clusters.
Fruit an achene, usually reflexed and seated on swollen, curved pedicel, pedicels clustered into a shiny mass.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 70 species, tropical & subtropical regions. Australia: 6 species, Qld, N.S.W.
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves with lamina broad-ovate, mostly 10–25 cm long, pale green and dull, usually distinctly hairy on both surfaces; domatia absent; petiole mostly more than 5 cm long | 2 |
| Leaves with lamina elliptic to ovate, mostly 6–13 cm long, dark green and glossy above, more or less glabrous except for scattered stinging hairs, especially along the veins; domatia present; petiole usually 2–5 cm long | Dendrocnide photinophylla |
| 2 | Leaves peltate, petiole inserted c. 10 mm in from margin | Dendrocnide moroides |
| Leaves not peltate
Back to 1 | Dendrocnide excelsa |
|
