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Laportea ovalifolia
Urticaceae FAMILY

Laportea ovalifolia

Laportea ovalifolia

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The plant usually has short, stinging hairs[1]. The leaves have stinging hairs, much like stinging nettles (Urtica species) to which they are related[2].

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial
Growth—

The plant can become an invasive weed in farmland within its native range[1]. It is considered a noxious weed in perennial crops such as cacao, oil palm and bananas[3].

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Laportea+ovalifolia>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Edible Wild Plants of Tanzania — Ruffo, C.K.: Birnie, A. & Tengnas, B. · Regional Land Management Unit; Nairobi. · 2002 · ISBN 9966-896-60-0 ↩︎A very well presented, simple guide to growing and utilizing wild food plants in Tanzania, with line drawings of each plant, a description, habitat and range, non-food as well as food uses, plus basic information on growing the plants.
  2. [2]BoDD (Botanical Dermatology Database) — http://bodd.cf.ac.uk/ ↩︎Brief notes on a very wide range of plants that have reports of causing harm to the skin.
  3. [3]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  4. [4]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  5. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎