Dear Sharon, we have stinging nettles
Urtica diocia although you have them as well in the US! They normally grow on disturbed ground, where a fire has been or is high in phosphate. They are great for butterflies but not much help for the unwary gardener, as they hurt! Normally wherever you find stinging nettles you will also find dock plants growing
Rumex obtusifolius and if you get stung by a nettle and rub on a dock leaf, it stops the pain.
If there are no dock leaves you can use a plantain
Plantago major which does work but slower than a dock. Nettles are eaten here in the nettle eating championship held in Dorset each year! Every competitor is given a number of plants and they have to strip them and eat them. However there is an art to this, for nettle hairs which are hypodermic only point upwards, so you start at the bottom ( in theory). I have never tried it though!
They also make beer and cordial from nettles and it used to be used to die clothes as well, they are highly medicinal as well. The first record we have of them is in pagan times.
Although I prefer plantains as they do not sting!
Regards from England.
Neil.
