Laportea

Dioecious or monoecious, annual or perennial herbs, not climbing, bearing stinging hairs, these less than 5 mm long. Stipules fused, intrapetiolar. Cystoliths present. Leaves alternate, simple, serrate. Inflorescences usually unisexual panicles, sometimes appearing spicate or as interrupted spikes. Male flowers: actinomorphic, 4-5-merous with the same number of stamens as tepals. Female flowers with 4 free, very unequal, tepals; ovary ovoid. Achene flattened, rugose.

Laportea is a genus of plants in the family Urticaceae. They are herbaceous, either annual or perennial. Like many plants of the Urticaceae, they have stinging hairs. There are stinging and non-stinging hairs on the same plant. The genus was named after the French naturalist Francis de Laporte de Castelnau.