I’m very glad to hear that you are feeling better, and admire your attitude! I’m grateful to you for contributing to the blog, where your experience can serve as both a warning and an inspiration to others. Your comments will be very helpful in communicating the reasons why we grow such plants here, and why we ask for the cooperation of our visitors, so that we can continue to represent medieval species that people are unlikely to encounter in gardens other than those of The Cloisters.

Best wishes,
Deirdre

Thank you so much for your erudite reply. I would not remove those plants! Instead, perhaps I would have done well to pause and read the signs!

I am feeling just a slight sensation now, so I believe the worst has passed.

Best regards,

Hans

Nettle has a long history of human use, and a wide distribution—it is a common weed of fertile soil throughout the United States and Europe. It is grown here in the bed devoted to plants used in medieval arts and crafts, where you encountered it, because of its use as a fiber plant—nettle fibers were woven into cloth just as flax and hemp were. It was also used as a food and a medicine.

The nettle is provided with stinging hairs as a defense against people and animals. These hollow hairs have a structure that resembles a hypodermic needle; when the tips of the hairs are broken by contact, the nettle actually pumps the toxin—a chemical irritant containing formic acid and histamine—stored at the base of the hair into the skin of the intruder. This chemical irritant contains formic acid and histamine. Folk-remedies include the application of the crushed leaf of dock, which is said to always grow providentially nearby. Dock is a kind of sorrel, and we grow several species of Rumex in the kitchen bed here at The Cloisters. If I do inadvertently touch a nettle, I bruise a leaf and apply it to the sting. Non-herbal treatments include antihistamines, or topical creams including hydro-cortisone.

Nettles are encountered by thousands of people in many countries every day, and I don’t consider it a dangerous plant, although it is certainly uncomfortable to be stung. Most people experience the stinging sensation for only a few minutes, but it can persist for longer, and you may be more than usually sensitive to the irritant. Of course I can’t judge the degree of your discomfort or the severity of your reaction; if you are still feeling the effects you might want to tell a doctor about your encounter.

I very much regret that you’ve had such an unpleasant experience, and hope that you will soon feel better. The nettle is deliberately planted deep in the bed where no-one is likely to brush against it, and labeled. I would be loath to remove such an ethnobotanically interesting plant from the garden. I will see to making a little fence around it to prevent other mishaps!

- Hans

PS: Please feel free to laugh at me, but this really hurts and I def will read the signs before touching next time!