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Mystery #1Tier 1plants / defences

How does a plant that cannot move give you such a nasty sting?

Brush past a nettle and minutes later your skin is prickling with itchy white bumps. But a nettle has no teeth, no claws, and it cannot take a single step towards you. It just stands there quietly in the hedge. So how does a plant that cannot move fight back and sting you?

A microscope close-up of a single nettle stinging hair, a sharp hollow needle rising from smaller hairs on the leaf.
Photo: Virginio Leonti · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

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