Where is the largest stinging nettle in the world?

The Ongaonga. And when I say largest, this is the size of a tree, like the size of an apple tree. Probably every hunter in New Zealand will know the species from traveling around in the river valleys. They’re massive.

They have these big jagged needles–you think about a nettle, and you know they’re covered in these little bristly hairs–but these ones you can see very clearly. They stab you just like a hypodermic needle. You know you’ve found this plant because you feel a sudden jabbing pain in your arm. Like someone stabbed you.

And for two or three days you’ll be numb and itchy. They have killed people in the past. People have had allergic reactions and heart attacks from being really severely stung.

But then what’s cool about them is these are also where our native admiral butterflies live and where they breed and lay their eggs and what they feed on. So it’s this fierce species, urtica ferox, the ferocious nettle.

But then inside it, some of their most fragile and beautiful species.