Mountain City residents may find the prickly but nutritious stinging nettle in the area. (Photo courtesy of www.natureasmedicine.wordpress.com)
Mountain City Montage
by PAULINE TOM
Whoa, Nettle-y! Who would’ve thunk it? After all this Montage’ing about coral snakes and Kiss’Me’ hunting, in slithered a tidbit pairing the two.
RonTom said, “Probably a little frog” as Kiss’Me’ whimpered and dug dirt at a little dog ramp just off our back porch. Just in case danger lurked, I held Kiss’Me’ while Ron flipped the ramp. CORAL SNAKE! Ron ran for a shovel as I followed after the fast-moving serpent. KA-BAM! After halved in two, Ron chopped off her still moving and still venomous head.
Without the head, she measured 27 inches. I’m guessing “she,” since females run (slither?) longer.
You might say a coral snake, like pokeweed leaves, is “glabrous.” This columnist makes words up, but “glabrous” is for real.
Glabrous: Having no hairs, projections, or pubescence; smooth.
With that clue (and one embedded in this column), have you guessed the “unglabrous” plant that some folks prepare like pokeweed?
“Dandelions” came in as a good guess. But, I’m talking unglabrous-to-the-max.
Manuel, a magnificent painter, called to my attention a young plant in my lawn for which he could only say, “If baby touch it, baby cry.”
Stinging nettle! And, sure as hell, when I went to gather tidbits about a seemingly ubiquitous element of “nature in the yard,” I picked a bushel.
Two weeks in a row, a plant with edible parts has called itself to my attention. Some prefer stinging nettle to spinach. It’s rich in vitamins and protein.
Pick very young leaves (with gloves, long sleeves and pants.) Rinse. Boil. Then do it again. And, again. Just like pokeweed. And, dandelions.
Another nettle recipe calls for sautéing in olive oil with some garlic. Still yet, nettle pesto.
Stinging nettle online sells at $54 for two pounds.
Stinging nettle (think “needles”) burning can last for hours. Hairs cover the underside of leaves. When brushed, the tip of each hair breaks, forming a sharp needle that injects toxins into the skin.
Remedies include baking soda, mud, saliva, and pee. As for me and my household, we use Benadryl spray for household stings and itches.
Not only is nettle delicious (to some), it’s “dioecious.”
“Dioecious”: having separate male and female plants. (Dioecious plants make up about six or seven percent of plant species.)
To complicate learning, “nettle” is also monoecious. Wildflower.org explains, “Flowers are unisexual, with either male or female on a given plant, or on same plant with males in upper leaf axils, females lower.”
And, to complicate learning what to look for, Hays County is home to at least three distinctively different plants commonly known as “Stinging Nettle”: Texas Bull Nettle, Cnidoscolus texanus; Heartleaf Nettle, Urtica chamaedryoides (said to be the worst sting), and California nettle, Urtica dioica ssp. gracilis.
Two pecks down. Two to go. To be continued next week.
Take a break. No need for pecking tidbits to me this week.
Thanks! Love, Pauline
