• Family : URTICACEAE
  (Nettle Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BICHCHHOO FAMILY (बिच्छू फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : Urticaceae
• Basionym : Urtica diversifolia Link
• Synonym(s) : Girardinia zeylanica Decne.; Girardinia heterophylla Decne; Girardinia leschenaultiana Decne.; Girardinia diversifolia subsp. ciliata (C.J.Chen) H.W.Li
• Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Girardinia diversifolia (Link) Friis
• Common name : Nilghiri nettle,Bichchhoo, Indian stinging nettle
• Vernacular name :
  • Vrischika (Sanskrit)
  • Awa, Alla, Bichua (Hindi)
  • Aanachoriyanam, Aanachenthotti, Choriyanam, Chenthotti, Kuttithoova (Malayalam)
  • Zozot (Ladakhi)
  • Santhak (Manipuri)
  • Allo (Nepali)
• Habit : Undershrub
• Habitat : Tropical evergreen forests, Tropical semi-evergreen forests, deciduous, Shola
• Comments / notes : A robust nettle-like plant, with deeply lobed saw-toothed leaves with bristles and stinging hairs. Bristles on the plant are stinging and cause skin irritation.
• Flower, Fruit : October-March
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Chittoor district, Vishakapatnam district
  • Karnataka : Ballari district, Chikkamagaluru district, Dakshina Kannada district, Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Mysuru district, Shivamogga district, Udupi district, Uttara Kannada district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Odisha : Cuttack district
  • Tamil Nadu : Alagar Hills (Madurai district), Kolli Hills (Namakkal district), Shevaroy Hills, Kalrayan Hills, Bodamalai Hills (Salem district), Pachamalai Hills (Tiruchirapalli district), Chitteri Hills, Yelagiri Hills (Vellore district), Sirumalai Hills (Dindigul district), Dharmapuri Hills, Theerthamalai Hills (Dharmapuri district), Piranmalai Hills (Sivaganga district), Gingee Hill (Villipuram district), Javadu Hills (Tiruvannamalai district), Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary (Theni district)
  • Madhya Pradesh : Hoshangabad district
  • Uttarakhand : Uttarakhand
  • Sikkim : Sikkim
  • West Bengal : West Bengal
  • Himachal Pradesh : Himachal Pradesh
  • Arunachal Pradesh : Changlang, Kameng, Lohit, Siang
  • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
  • Assam : Assam
  • Nagaland : Nagaland
  • Ladakh : Ladakh
  • Jammu and Kashmir : Kashmir
  • Mizoram : Mizoram
  • Manipur : Manipur
  • Tripura : Tripura
• Native : Angola, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Bhutan, India, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Inner Mongolia, Ivory Coast, Jawa, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lesser Sunda Islands, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Manchuria, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Northern Provin
• Exotic/Native : Native
• World Distribution : Angola, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Inner Mongolia, Ivory Coast, Jawa, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lesser Sunda Islands, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Manchuria, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Pakistan, Primorye, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tibet, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature :
  • H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 3
  • N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka
  • Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983
  • Yoganarasimhan, SN., Subramanyam and Razi, BA (1981). Flora of Chikmagalur District, Karnataka. Intl, Book Distri., Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand, India
  • Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka
  • Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI
  • Ravichandran, V. 2016. Taxonomic and Phytogeographical investigation on endemic plants of Western Ghats with special reference to Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary of Tamil Nadu (Ph.D. thesis work)
  • Pullaiah, 1997. Flora of Andhra Pradesh, vol. 3.
  • Oleg P & Adam S (1984). Flowers of Himalaya. Oxford University Press: 365
  • Chowdhery, H. J. & Wadhwa, B. H (1984). Flora of Himachal Pradesh Vol. 2. Published BSI: 650
  • G.S Giri., A.Pramanik., H.J. Chowdhery., G.D Pal and S.K. Das (2008). Materials for Arunachal Pradesh, Vol (2), Pg: 416
• Read more :
  • Plants of the World Online
  • World Flora Online
  • Global Plants on JSTOR
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Girardinia diversifolia. Downloaded on 21 November 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)

Habitat

India Distribution

World Distribution