Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway

Stinging Nettle Tree from Ngurdoto crater wall, Tanzania

Henk Beentje, Botanist, Kew Herbarium

06 May 2008 12.02pm

Nettles the size of birch trees!

Ten days ago I was on the edge of the Ngurdoto crater near Arusha, Tanzania, after five days cooped up in a conference room discussing conservation assessments of East African trees. A worthwhile workshop - but it was good to get out afterwards, into what felt like another world! A bit like a lost world, in fact - like Ngorongoro, but on a slightly smaller scale, the Ngurdoto crater has a diameter of just over 3 kilometres. The walls of the old volcano rise steeply above the crater swamp, which has buffaloes and antelopes dining peacefully (you're not allowed to go into the crater, as a human). The crater walls are thickly forested, and one of my favourite trees grows here: Obetia radula, the stinging nettle tree. No good for tree huggers, this grows to 13 metres high, which is one big nettle. And it has some seriously vicious stinging hairs on the stem, on the leaves, on the flowering parts... Local people use the stem fibres to make rope, which is employed in weaving; but I am glad just to be looking at it from a safe distance.

This big beauty is found on rocky hillsides all over East Africa. I would like to grow one at home, but for some reason no seed catalogue is offering it!

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