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Dendrocnide photinophylla
Urticaceae FAMILY

Dendrocnide photinophylla

Dendrocnide photinophylla

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
0/5

Safety & Hazards

The trees, especially when young, have stinging hairs. The sting can be intensely painful and the pain can recur, with reducing intensity, over a period of several weeks[1]. Although significant, this is the least aggressive of the Australian stinging trees and the effect is much shorter lasting[2, 3].

Cultivation Details

HabitEvergreen Tree
GrowthFast

Found in tropical and subtropical areas in the wild[4]. Plants in this genus are essentially lowland primary forest species preferring slightly moist and somewhat shady habitats[5]. A fast-growing tree[2]. A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[6].

Propagation

Seed - germinates readily[2]. Cuttings root easily[2]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Dendrocnide+photinophylla>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Wild Food in Australia. — Cribb. A. B. and J. W. · Fontana · 1976 · ISBN 0-00-634436-4 ↩︎A very good pocket guide.
  2. [2]Australian Rainforest Plants Volumes 1 - 6 — Nicholson N. & H. · Terania Rainforest Publishing; New South Wales. · 2007 · ISBN 9-78095894-3628 ↩︎Beautiful set of booklets with a terse description of over 600 species and their habitat, often including some of their uses and notes on their cultivation, plus at least one, excellent photograph.
  3. [3]Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants — http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/cd-keys/rfk/index.html ↩︎An online resource giving botanical information, and a little bit about plant usage, for over 2,700 species of plants found in the Australian rainforest.
  4. [4]Flora of Australia — http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/abif/flora/ ↩︎The full information from the Flora of Australia - on-line. An excellent resource.
  5. [5]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
  6. [6]The Gardens' Bulletin Vol. 25 — Botanic Gardens; Singapore · 1969 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/Default.aspx ↩︎A botanical journal - this issue includes a treatment of the genera Dendrocnide and Laportea. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
  7. [7]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  8. [8]The Useful Native Plants of Australia. — Maiden J.H. · Turner & Co.; London. · 1889 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎Terse details of the uses of many Australian plants and other species naturalised, or at least growing, in Australia. It can be downloaded from the Internet.