Boehmeria cylindrica plants. Useful Tropical Plants Database 2014 by Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info (Accessed 11/2017).

Boehmeria cylindrica is a perennial herb, 40-100 cm tall, nettle-like but unarmed, stem erect, unbranched, opaque, smooth. 

Leaves opposite, stalk elongate, blade egg-shaped, base rounded, tip long-pointed, veins palmate at base, margin coarsely toothed. 

Boehmeria cylindrica. Male flowers. Gerrit Davidse. Useful Tropical Plants. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0. tropical.theferns.info (Accessed 1/2017).

Flowers greenish, tiny, no petals, sexes on separate plants (dioecious), in dense, rounded clusters along axis of slender, axillary flower spikes; blooming July- Aug. 

Boehmeria cylindrica Flowers close-up. © Jeffrey S. Pippen. York Co. VA 8/2013. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike. jeffpippen.com (Accessed 11/2017).

Fruit dry, 1-seeded (achenes), in pairs, surrounded by old calyx, forming wings; fruiting Aug.-Oct. 
 

Wetland status: FACW+. 

Frequency in NYC: Frequent. 

Origin: Native. 

Habitat: Wet to moist shady areas, swamp forests, flood plains, edges, stream corridors, soil pH 5.1-7.0. 

Notes: Host to larvae of the mourning cloak butterfly, Nymphalis antiopa, (Nymphalidae); question mark butterfly, Polygonia interrogationis and the comma butterfly, P. comma (Nymphalidae), (Tallamy 2003; Pyle 1981).