I agree it's not stinging nettle. It looks a lot like the green version I get from reseeded Chocolate Joe-Pye, Eupatorium.

I found a photo online of the chocolate version that shows the similarity, let's hope the link works: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/4484/#b

Ooo- thank you, I bet that's it. That could also explain the mystery seed heads I had in a different area (what also has this Pye Weed in it, it's everywhere)... Maybe I only had seed heads where it got enough sun...

Thank you for the help... Now to decide how much (if any) gets to stay.... Anyone want any mini-joe pye weed? :-)

It'll get quite big, don't "worry!" (3 feet or so) You can cut it back to get it bushier. Pull up anything you're not sure you want, you will have some more next year.

Joe pye is actually pretty stunning and Is a good native plant. Gets 5-6 feet in PA and has good fall color.

Do not confuse chocolate Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate', a snakeroot) with the 6-8' tall,
pink-to-purplish-flowering Joe Pye weed that used to be known as Eupatorium purpureum but now is called Eutrochium
purpureum.

One difference
between Eutrochium and Eupatorium is that the former has mostly whorled
leaves and the latter mostly opposite ones (as your plant, pictured above).

I expect you have common white snakeroot, now known as Ageratina
altissima, Other Names: Eupatorium ageratoides, E. urticaefolium,
deerweed, deerwort, deerwort-boneset, fall poison, hemp-agrimony, Indian
sanicle, milk-sickness plant, richweed, snakeroot, squaw-weed, stevia, white
sanicle, white top. And yes, as one would guess from some of the names, it is a
toxic plant.

Today’s taxonomists can make life confusing with all the
re-arranging of genera that is going on, but the wide assortment of common
names is even worse!!

This article is helpful in clarifying things: https://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no37_joepyeweed.pdf

Wow, Weedlady, you know your stuff! I wonder if you might recognize my posting, which I think is not wild quinine but is similar.

Aw, shucks stage_rat... :-) Well, I know a fair bit of "stuff" but I also have a pretty good knack for finding out the stuff I do not know or are unsure of! :-)

I think I took a quick look at your post on wild quinine but I'll try to locate it again. It caught my eye because I only just discovered this lovely, under-used and apparently little-know native last summer. I didn't know what it was upon seeing it in a local prairie in the summer, so I photographed it and showed it to my friend who has a native plant nursery and REALLY knows her stuff! She ID'ed it for me, & I liked the look of it so much I went back later and gathered some seed. I stratified it over the winter and planted it (too much of it!) in February. The seedlings threw me, as they look nothing like what I expected them to - more like a rudbeckia seedling - but I KNOW I did not mix up the seeds with anything else. I sent a photo of those to my friend & she chided me gently saying she KNOWS I know very well basal leaves & young seedlings often look nothing like the more mature plant. Yeah, yeah... grumble, grumble... So it is growing, but slowwwwwly.

Oh - right: just looked at your post. Very definitely NOT wild quinine & I should know what it is but cannot bring it up in my cluttered brain. :-) Looks like it may be a wild aster of some sort. Google "wild quinine" images & look at the foliage & you'll see how different your plant is. I have a friend who should know it; I'll check with him.

Thanks, weedlady, I saw your comment on my post. I thought it was wild quinine for a long time because the flowers are so, so similar (to a non-botanist). I have a book of Indiana wildflowers and there's nothing like my plant in there (well, that book also described the wrong plant under lesser celandine, so maybe I need a new book. But online hasn't helped either.)

Those basal leaves are so tricky! For instance I need to refresh my knowledge of what garlic mustard babies look like, they're so different from the adult plant that I was letting them be for the longest time!

Sorry I didn't respond earlier (somehow I stopped getting notified of new messages to this thread) - Weedlady thank you for the info! I was going to post a picture today to ask for one final suggestion on what it is, and low and behold I see your post about the Ageratina
altissima, googled it and whoolah - that's definitely it, and it just started flowering.

Based on this identification, I think the one remaining big patch of it that I haven't pulled out yet is going to get pulled out today. I really don't like how they look- mine seem to be scraggly and not formed very nicely, and look messy mixed within the solomons seal that is there that I want to keep. Unless anyone has any convincing reasons I should keep it or find a transplant place for it?

I get a lot of adorable migrating birds coming through my yard in fall and spring, and they love the seed heads on that plant and the chocolate joe pye (as well as my almost-solved mystery plant that is apparently another eupatorium).

I recently read an Audubon article that mentioned that yards with native plantings nurture wildlife better, since they provide not only seeds but also habitat for native insects which the native birds eat. So, that would by my main reason for keeping a little of it around. (Reading that article has actually made me less grumpy when I see that bugs are making a plant look unsightly)

OH! Stage_rat-- what timing for this post of yours!! I wish you had been at the Midwest Native Plant Conference in southern Ohio this weekend! You would have learned so much about exactly that (how native plants nurture our wildlife so much more effectively than non-native species)! I have not yet read Douglas w. Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home, but am going to pick up a copy ASAP.

Here is part of the synopsis from Amazon: "There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife ― native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. In many parts of the world, habitat destruction has been so extensive that local wildlife is in crisis and may be headed toward extinction.
"Bringing Nature Home has sparked a national conversation about the link between healthy local ecosystems and human well-being, and the new paperback edition ― with an expanded resource section and updated photos ― will help broaden the movement. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical recommendations, everyone can make a difference."

You must read this article explaining in detail why cardinals that are eating Amur honeysuckle berries (a food source that is dismayingly widespread now) are not as healthy as the mates they attract think: http://redandthepeanut.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-northern-cardinal-eating-red.html And be sure to follow the link embedded in THIS article to another from the website of the National Wildlife Assn. regarding non-native plants being ecological traps for birds (and, therefore, affecting all wildlife since EVERYTHING is connected to everything else in the Web of Life!

And then take a good long look at the plants in your yard to see what you may need to remove and think what you may replace them with!!

Another good book with lists of native replacements for horticultural nightmares sold so widely is author Sara Stein's Planting Noah's Garden. It has been out for some time, but has very useful information!