Talk:Stinging nettle

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Stinging nettle was a good article candidate, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. Once the objections listed below are addressed, the article can be renominated. You may also seek a review of the decision if you feel there was a mistake. Date of review: 16 August 2006

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Stinging nettle has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

Anybody know what makesthem sting?

Contents 1 Remedy 2 Additional images 3 Caps 4 remedies 5 nutrients 6 Anecdote 7 Failed GA 8 Beer recipe

[edit] Remedy

It could use a remedy section

[edit] Additional images

Clump of European stinging nettles in the shade of a tree.

[edit] Caps

I've restored it to caps; "stinging nettle" can mean any species of Urtica which stings (of which there are several), while "Stinging Nettle" refers specifically to U. dioica - MPF 15:27, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

That's only one interpretation. A phrase like "the stinging nettle" is unambiguous in context, and it is very unlikely that a reader would interpret it as "all those nettles which are capable of stinging". Vernacular plant names are not proper nouns: they vary from region to region, are not controlled by a naming body, etc. etc. There is therefore no need to plaster articles with capital letters, and at least an æsthetic reason to keep the names in lower case. "The stinging nettle" is Urtica dioica. "Stinging Nettle" is Capitalisation Where None Is Needed. I notice that the OED (under "nettle") seems to agree with me:

"…the Eurasian plant U. dioica, which has strongly toothed ovate leaves and is an abundant weed of damp waste ground, roadsides, etc. (also called (common) stinging nettle)"

It would also have been nice to have had a discussion about this, given that there has been disagreement in the past. --Stemonitis 16:07, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Aesthetically, capitalisation is far better, as it means the species are all titled uniformly, without random variation in capitalisation depending on (often obscure) etymology rather than botany. Lower casing some gives the impression of 'superior' species and 'lower' species - MPF 16:15, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree that consistency is desirable, so I'd be happy for a site-wide policy on names (particularly if it plumped for lower case). The idea that a capital letter on something like "European stinging nettle" makes it look "superior" is, however, ridiculous, and it would be sad if the only reason for capitalisation were so as to make the poor little hairy nettle (or "Hairy Nettle") look more butch alongside the European stinging nettle and the American stinging nettle with their superior capital letters! The counter-argument, of course, is that having lower-case names allows one to preserve the (not at all random) information that an adjective is derived from a proper noun, by having them, and only them, capitalised. --Stemonitis 16:26, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

A site-wide policy has been discussed on several occasions (see the WP:TOL talk archives); each time, there has been a small, though not statistically significant majority in favour of capitals for species names. Personally, (for plants, anyway) I'd actually rather see the page titles shifted over to scientific names, but that too while popular has never reached any overall agreement. - MPF 17:15, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd also be happy with scientific names, since the whole point of having them is to be able to refer unambiguously to taxa. But, in the absence of clear rules in any direction, I think it's best to avoid moves between different capitalisations, and have therefore reverted to the original, lower case spelling. --Stemonitis 09:19, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Incidentally, the move also wrecks the peer review link above (see here for the review), but that's only a small problem. --Stemonitis 16:09, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Another note concerning consistency. Among the category leaf vegetables, of those where you can tell the difference, only three entries use Upper Case Naming of Plants: Fat Hen, Common Purslane and Scurvy-grass Sorrel. Far more use lower case: Brussels sprout, Chinese cabbage, garden cress, golden samphire, land cress, mile-a-minute weed, miner's lettuce, rock samphire, sweet potato, Welsh onion, wild leek, and winged bean.

[edit] remedies

User:MPF says the dock remedy is not very effective. D.M.N., an anon, is plugging the fern sori remedy. I took out both editorial comments and left the remedies. If someone can cite a reference as to the effectiveness of either one, it should be put here, but at this point they are either POV or original research and should be omitted. -- WormRunner 01:56, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] nutrients

it would be nice to know what particular nutrients nettle leaf contains. I'll try and find out. --MM 22:42, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anecdote

Is the WWII anecdote in the Uses section really encyclopaedic? Is it verifiable? Chaos syndrome 11:00, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Claude A. R. Kagan 23:58, 31 July 2006 (UTC) During World War II, there was a shortage of green vegetables and so our housemaster E. D. Laborde who had come from the Fiji islands decided that we should eat these nettles. He sent us all with the exception as the house Prefect , a lad named Powys who claimed privilege. We came back with pillow cases filled with the nettles and turned turned themn over to the cook who did not seem particularly pleased to get them. At supper we all had at least a taste of them but the housemaster and the prefect gorged themselves with these not so bad green vegetables, sort of like spinach.

[edit] Failed GA

I failed this article as a GA because of the lack of references. Fix that, and it would be fine.Some P. Erson 14:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Beer recipe

Does the beer recipe belong here? Tone is definitely non-encyclopedic as it stands. --Brianhe 04:55, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably not. It was added wholesale by an IP. While interesting enough, Wikipedia is not a place for recipes, much less one in that tone. I removed it. It did manage to stick for 10 days, though, which was odd. Ourai ^т _с 05:27, 16 January 2007 (UTC)