Translations:Manfred Klett: Von der Agrartechnologie zur Landbaukunst/1337/en

Here lies, in all likelihood, the reason why Rudolf Steiner names no animal organ for the stinging nettle — none that would ensure the process of keeping the etheric in flow beyond the blossom. The organ that would qualify here is the heart. But the heart is no skin organ — it is a muscular, self-active organ. Within it, in the rhythm of the pulse-beat, metabolic process and sense process unite; they become one. The heart embodies the synthesis arising from the polarity of both processes. It is active inwardness and organ-sheath simultaneously. The stinging nettle fulfils an analogous function on the level of merely living nature. Its astralised body of formative forces enables it to transform the force-nature of the earthly substances potassium, calcium, and iron — bound as they are into the earthy-solid — into healing radiations that bring order to the living.