Parietaria officinalis Seeds | Pellitory of the Wall

Pellitory of the Wall (Parietaria officinalis) with soft green foliage growing in a shaded old wall — Pellitory of the Wall (*Parietaria officinalis*): Urticaceae, a soft-leaved nettle relative of old walls and shaded corners.

LATIN NAME: Parietaria officinalis

COMMON NAME: Pellitory of the Wall

Plant Profile

Pellitory of the Wall is a soft perennial of the nettle family, a plant of old walls, shaded foundations and cool corners across Europe, growing thirty to sixty centimetres tall with lance-shaped, slightly downy leaves that lack the sting of its nettles. Through summer it carries small, greenish flowers in clusters where the leaves meet the stem, barely showy and easily overlooked.

It belongs to shaded, cool, leafy ground and seeds itself freely where walls hold a little moisture. The foliage stays fresh and soft all season, and the plant has a long, quiet record as a household herb of the Mediterranean and the old European pharmacopoeias.

Science & Biotechnology

The genus matters to medicine in an unexpected way: the pollen of wall pellitories is a leading cause of hay fever and asthma around the Mediterranean, and Parietaria extracts are among the standard allergen immunotherapies of the region, making the genus one of the best-studied of all allergy plants.

The species itself carries a folk record as a mild diuretic, and its leaf chemistry has been profiled in the tradition of European herbal literature, though modern use is modest next to its allergological fame. Italian research groups have built the region’s allergy panels around the genus, and its pollen counts are a routine part of Mediterranean public-health reporting, an unusual scientific career for a wall weed.

Uses & Benefits

In the garden it fills the damp, shaded corner where little else greens: soft, fresh foliage under walls and hedges, self-sown but never aggressive in cool climates, and a traditional household herb for those who keep the old records.

Anyone planting it should know the genus’s respiratory reputation; in dry Mediterranean climates the pollen is a serious allergen, though the plant prefers the damp corners of gardens and is little trouble in the north. In old herbals it appears as a mild diuretic and a poultice herb, entries worth reading as history rather than instruction, and the plant’s real garden work is covering the walls.

Growing from Seed

Sow in spring on the surface of a loose compost, covering barely, and keep it cool, moist and shaded; germination follows within two or three weeks.

Grow the seedlings in half shade, pot them on once, and plant out into leafy, moisture-retentive soil at a wall base or under deciduous shade. Once it is happy it maintains itself by seed, and a light tug keeps it within bounds. Cut it back after flowering if it sprawls; the plant rebounds with fresh soft growth and holds its corner neatly through the rest of the season. Water the wall base weekly through the first summer, and by the second season the roots will have found the moisture that keeps the plant going unaided.

Our Take

A soft, unstinging nettle relative for the damp, shaded corner, with a second career as one of medicine’s best-studied allergy plants. Cool leafy soil does the rest.

Herb Seeds