Urtica hirta Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 495. 1826; Driessenia sinensis H. Léveillé; Memorialis hirta (Blume) Weddell; Pouzolzia hirta (Blume) Hasskarl.

Herbs, sometimes subshrubs, often prostrate, 50-100(-160) cm, monoecious or dioecious. Stems 4-angled distally, pubescent. Leaves opposite, stipules broadly ovate, ca. 2.5 mm; petiole 1-4 mm; leaf blade narrowly lanceolate, rarely narrowly ovate or elliptic, (1.2-)3-10 × (0.7-)1.2-2.8 cm, herbaceous or thinly papery, 3(or 5)-veined, adaxial surface sparsely strigillose or subglabrous, abaxial surface sparsely pubescent along veins or subglabrous, base subcordate or rounded, apex acuminate or acute. Glomerules often bisexual or sometimes unisexual, 2-9 mm in diam. Male flowers: pedicel 1-5 mm; buds ca. 2 mm in diam.; perianth lobes 5, oblanceolate, 2-2.5 mm, apex acute. Female flowers sessile; perianth tube ovoid, ca. 1.6 mm, longitudinally 10-winged, apex 2-toothed. Achene white to black, ovoid, ca. 1.4 mm. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.

The plants are used agriculturally as fodder for pigs and medicinally as treatment for boils and bone dislocations and fractures.

Weedy places, thickets by ditches and rice fields; 100-1000 (-2700) m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Asia, Australia].