Getting small- in fine nettles

We had dirt hauled on to the property once and now we have nettles forever.
It has been raining this year a little more that usual, and all of these beautiful green seedlings started sprouting all over the yard.

There are a few pieces  of grass, very few but mostly this is...

Nettles!!!
Oh No! even these tiny little beauties will sting if you walk bare foot on them. They are so beautiful though.

Like this cushion-y layer of soft plants that you could lie in and soak up the sun.

I waited for them to get larger because we have another volunteer plant that grows here that doesn't sting. I thought they might be nettles, but I wanted to wait to be sure.

Yep, there are the infamous hairs of pain.

Nettle is the common name for between 30-45 species of flowering plants of the genus Urtica in the family Urticaceae, with a cosmopolitan though mainly temperate distribution.
Thank you Wiki!

Closer...

Be careful now, this stuff bites.

The Latin name Urtica means "burning" and "uro" means " I burn".  The sting of nettles contains the chemicals Histamine, which irritates the skin, Acetylcholine that causes a burning sensation and Serotonin, which causes the other two chemicals to react. This is the main side effect from using nettles. The leaf of the Dock Rumex is traditionally used to reduce the pain of the nettle sting and are normally found growing in the vicinity of nettles.

There is lots of Folklore about nettles. In Norse mythology Thor the god of thunder is often represented by nettles and burning them on the fire will protect you from his lightening during thunderstorms. Also in Norse mythology Loki, the trickster god, spun fishing nets out of nettles. Actually a very good string can be made out of nettles and nettle string had many uses in the ancient world.                                                        From the School of Natural Health Sciences  Check this web page out...very interesting.

Nettles contain vitamin A, vitamin B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (panothenic acid), vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin K, vitamin E. chlorophyll, potassium, calcium, mangaan, acetycholine, serotonine, sulphur, iron, selenium, magnesium, chromium and zinc.

Culinary uses: Care has to be taken in collecting nettles to avoid it's irritating sting and the wearing of stout gloves is highly recommended. However, the leaves are high in nutrients and also very tasty, making it worth the trouble, whilst cooking them destroys the stinging effect and makes them perfectly safe to eat.
From Vortex Health where they sell nettles in capsules. Seems like the best idea to me!

Photo credit here goes to Wikimedia commons and the ever wonderful
Jerome
Prohaska

OH, oh, oh, now I know why those things hurt so bad.

"out of this nettle, danger, we grasp this flower, safety." -Shakespeare


You can also read another getting small post here.