nettles?-- Urtica dioica

Stupid ? but don't all nettles have stinging hairs? If they do, this doesn't so it can't be a nettle. However, if there are hairless nettles...you could be right! Thank-you!

dead nettles don't have stinging hairs, however I'm pretty sure this isn't a dead nettle. not a sunflower though, unless a "wild" sunflower

It isn't Urtica dioica or a Lamium. And it certainly isn't stupid to say stinging nettles sting. I'm always surprised when people ask for a stinging nettle id and haven't actually tried the obvious test. It hardly hurts and doesn't last very long. More a tingle than a pain if you just touch with a fingertip.

The plant in the picture looks to me almost shrubby. Are the bottoms of those stems beginning to get a little woody?

Floral, thanks for the input.

In some places it looks shrubby but in other places, it's just a single stem and it is definitely choice food for something! It isn't exactly woody on older stems but for lack of better terms it is more "fibrous"? Stiffer?

Don't see any flower buds but it does have secondary growth where the petiole joins the stem...sort of similar to mints.

Could it be some Stachys? Around here it could be S sylvatica, not sure where it roams on earth.

Thanks for your input Linaria. I can see some similarities...but I'm having a hard time narrowing down the possibilities....it is such a large genus! I do have feverwort...which is also similar to Stachys but I don't think that's in the Stachys genus. I may have to wait 'til it flowers...if any of the plants survive whatever is munching on them!

Could it be circaea lutetiana, enchanter's nightshade?

Hmmm....never heard of that one but it is a good candidate! Thanks...could be that!

Pretty sure it's not C lutetiana. That's a very common weed in my garden and doesn't look much like the plant in the photo. Leaves are too toothed for a start and the whole thing is too tall.

Take a look at White Vervain, Verbena urticifolia. I just saw some today and it looked quite a bit like this.

WW

Here is a link that might be useful: White Vervain

Thanks for the input! The leaf is similar but I have a large number of the plants and none of them seems to be reaching anywhere near that height...one description said they get up to 4 ft! Now, they may have a bit more growing to do but they're not going to get to 4 ft....so you could be on the right track...I just don't think it's this species.

Without flowers, it's hard to say, but I would consider Purple Giant Hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia) as a possibility...

Leaves have a minty/licorice/herbal smell when crushed...

Scutellaria serrata?

All these plants are beginning to look the same! I will crush a leaf tomorrow...per the minty/licorice smell....and Scutellaria serrata def. looks like a possibility....hoping to see flowers soon! Thank-you both!

Ok.....no mint smell or otherwise...just scent of crushed leaf. Leaves are pubescent and stems are square if that helps...and it just occurred to me that I posted last week with a large clump of these...I thought they were different but now I think I'm looking at the same plant and Vera said she was sure they were Heliopsis helianthoides. Is she right?

I think this is false nettle, boehmeria cylindrica. Height seems right, as do the square stems. Will be obvious when it blooms, anyway, so please come back and let us know!

Here is a link that might be useful: Boehmeria cylindrica

Leaf veins are not right for Boehmeria cylindrica. I don't know what it is but I know a lot of things it isn't ;-)

How about Scrophularia marilandica or Agastache nepetoides, both tall plants with opposite, toothed leaves. And although the second one is in the mint family, it is said to not have that characteristic mint fragrance.