Urtica spicata Thunberg in Murray, Syst. Veg., ed. 14, 850. 1784; Boehmeria gracilis C. H. Wright; B. paraspicata Nakai; B. tricuspis var. unicuspis Makino.

Herbs perennial or subshrubs, simple or few branched, 0.4-1 m tall; upper stems, branchlets, and petioles sparsely strigillose. Dioecious or monoecious. Leaves opposite, subequal in size; stipules lanceolate, 4-7 mm; petiole 1-7(-10) cm; leaf blade ovate-rhombic or rhombic, 2.5-8(-15) × 2-6(-10) cm, thinly herbaceous, secondary veins 1 or 2 each side of midvein, both surfaces sparsely strigillose or subglabrous, base broadly cuneate, sometimes subrounded, margin coarsely 3-9(-13)-dentate, teeth gradually larger distally. Glomerules on axillary, lax, unbranched spikelike branches; male or bisexual ones in proximal axils, 2-10(-18) cm; female ones in distal axils. Male flowers 4-merous, sessile; perianth lobes boat-shaped to elliptic, ca. 1.2 mm, sparsely strigillose, connate to middle; rudimentary ovule ellipsoid, 0.6-0.8 mm. Fruiting perianth tube rhomboid-obovoid, compressed, 1.2-1.5 mm, strigillose on shoulder, base cuneate or stipitate, apex with short neck, 2-toothed. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

The fibers are used to make ropes, cloth, and paper.

Forest margins, thickets, grasslands, by ditches in hills and mountains; 100-1600 m. Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guizhou, N and W Hebei, W Henan, Hubei, NW Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, SE Jilin, S Liaoning, Nei Mongol, S Shaanxi, E Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].