Native to eastern US & Canada. Reported as an unestablished neophyte in Germany.
Distribution / Verbreitung: in
North AmericaPictures / BilderOther English names (not proposed):
Albany hemp
bush nettle
Canada nettleTaxonomic citation:
Laportea canadensis (Linnaeus) Gaudichaud-Beaupré, Voyage autour du Monde, […] Éxécuté sur les corvettes de S. M. l’Uranie et la Physicienne; Botanique 498. 1830.
Basionym:
Urtica canadensis Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 2: 985. 1753.
The name of the genus most likely honors an obscure French sailor named
Laporte who (it is believed) served on the ship
Uranie during Louis de Freycinet’s voyage around the world in 1817–1820. Laporte would then have been a companion of the expedition’s apothecary-botanist, Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré, who named the genus in Voyage autour du Monde, […] Éxécuté sur les corvettes de S. M. l’Uranie et la Physicienne; Botanique 498. 1830. See:
Article on Origin of
Laportea in
CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names by Umberto Quattrocchi (Taylor & Francis US, Nov 23, 1999)
page 1422(The reference in the above citation to the French naturalist & explorer,
Francis de Laporte, Comte de Castelnau, is unlikely because the Comte would have been a boy of 6 to 9 years old during de Freycinet’s expedition, or not quite 20 years old when the genus name was published, and during all that time the Comte is known to have lived in Paris attending school. Nevertheless, most authorities cite the Comte as the eponym. In the same publication, Gaudichaud named other plants in honor of known French naval officers of the expedition. Unfortunately, Gaudichaud failed to indicate the full name of the eponym in this case & no officer named Laporte is listed on the expedition’s manifest. That manifest, however, does not name any of the non-officer crew of the expedition.)
3379 - Urticaceae
