• Nettle plants are known for stinging hairs.nettle in dark image by .shock from Fotolia.com
  
  Florida may seem like a paradise, but it has its share of biting insects and dangerous animals. Even some of the plants can leave painful injuries. One of the most prominent of these is the family of stinging nettles. Stinging nettles can leave painful injuries when touched. The pain can last for several hours after you are stung.
  
  

Pursh Plant

• The pursh plant (urtica chamaedryoides), also known as fireweed or heartleaf nettle, is a nondescript plant, often overlooked by people until they have been stung, according to the University of Florida IFAS Extension. The pursh plant's stinging hairs are characteristic of nettles, although the sting often is described as being more intense than other species of nettle plants. The plant has cane-like stems that sprawl low to the ground and heart-shaped leaves with moderate lobes on long petioles. Both the leaves and stems have stinging hairs on them.
  
  

Horse-Nettle

• The horse-nettle, also known by its Latin name Solanum carolinense, is a member of the nightshade family. This is a perennial plant that grows from a rhizome. The plant may reach 3 feet in height with a stout stem that is green when the plant is young and ages to purple in a mature plant. The stem is spiny and covered with star-shaped hairs. The leaves of the horse-nettle are elliptic and sometimes ovate with wavy edges and coarsely toothed margins. Each leaf has coarse spines along the veins. At maturity, horse-nettle has a cluster of white flowers along the tip of each plant.
  
  

Bull Nettle

• Bull nettle's Latin name is cnidoscolus stimulosus, but the plant has a variety of colorful names, such as finger-rot, tread softly and spurge nettle. The plant has a tuberous root and a stem that may reach up to 3 feet in height. Bull nettle stems may be branched or unbranched. The leaves on a bull nettle grow alternately on the stems and range in color from bright green to dark green. The leaves are irregularly shaped and palmate with three to five lobes per leaf. The margins are coarsely toothed. Each leaf grows on a long petiole. Bull nettle flowers grow on the tip of the stem in clusters of three to five white flowers. Coarse, stinging hairs cover the stem and leaves.