What charming flowers are these?
The flowers are easily overlooked
but the plant is one of the first we learn as children - stinging nettles.
In late summer when these flowers produce huge numbers of seeds, they are relished by sparrows and chaffinches and bullfinches.
Caterpillars of four of our commoner butterflies - small tortoiseshell, peacock, red admiral and comma - feed on nettles, and at least nine species of moth.
Nettles support over 40 species of invertebrate and therefore the creatures that prey on them such as blue tits and ladybirds.
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