Maybe, I don't think it's dioica though. No stingers that I could feel and the leaves are slightly different. I'm starting to imagine pins and needles, but they're not really there lol. No formic acid burn!

I like nettles so that's why I noticed it. There are 2 other Urtica species in my area. The native U. chamaedryoides, and the non native U. urens. Neither of them look right. The false nettles, it doesn't look like Boehmeria cylindrica but it does look similar to Laportea canadensis.

Maybe a Perilla ?

It does look like it could be something in Lamiaceae. Are the stems square?

I didn't even think about that peren. I'm rusty! I'll go back and check. It's not far, thanks.

Old Forester. It's early spring here and everything is just emerging. I've never seen Perilla growing around here, and if it was, I don't think it would be that far along in growth this early, and there were no aromas. I'll try to get the stem info asap.

This plant looks like a returning hardy perennial. Unless you're in the tropics perilla wouldn't survive the winter.

USDA lists Perilla frutescens as an invasive as far north as Minnesota and Wisconsin. I am seeing it more and more in rural areas of Ga.

The stem isn't square. The leaves are opposite. A few fine hairs on the stem and petiols. It grows close to the water but not right next to it. The undersides of the lower leaves have a purple tinge. The other photos won't load.

My point was that the plant in the photos looks like a returning perennial. Perilla may well be listed as an invasive but being a tender species it must reproduce annually by seed, not by overwintering as a perennial.

A couple more pictures finally. I don't know if they will help. Thanks for the info about the northern spread of Perilla Old Forester. It's way to early for anything like that to be this far along already. The spring ephemerals are just now blooming. These were all coming up in the same area. Not a clump like the original picture.

I'm having real trouble seeing anything other than nettles.

If it is a nettle I'm leaning more towards Urtica urens at this stage based on its look, but that species is supposed to have a sting more painful than U. dioica, and I'm not getting stung unless they develop the stingers later. I'm going to check my emerging dioicas now to see if they sting!

The emerging Urtica dioica doesn't have much sting either. I have a pins and needles sensation so I think I wasn't imagining the feeling after touching the plant in question. The nettles are all so similar.

I'm growing the native nettles for use as hostplants for red admiral butterflies. The native species aren't common in the area and I had no idea there was an introduced Eurasian species nearby. The most abundant butterfly at the moment is the red admiral. I believe they also use Urtica urens as a hostplant over here, and in Europe and Britain where they also use Humulus and Parietaria judaica. The native nettles I'm growing are Urtica dioica, Laportea canadensis, Boehmeria cylindrica, and Pilea pumila.

https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/red-admiral

Floral is correct about Perilla being invasive from reseeding, not persistance. I have it around in the purple leaf form and I like it as an accent, just have to remove about a million seedlings each spring and leave only the ones I want but once it starts it is said to be there forever.

I'm growing both types red and green for the first time this year, and everyone growing them says they spread everywhere. That's probably why they are recorded as being invasive up here, they come from peoples gardens. If they like dry shade there is plenty space for them here.

IME you would find Urtica urens strictly in disturbed places like veggie garden or field with annual cropp,

something is slightly off for U dioica in those pics, even though their place would fit (near a river, probably high in nitrogene/ nitrate,

a layer of old stalks through wich new shoot emerge)

is it possible that it is rather some Boehmeria?

B cylindrica popped up in a quick web search

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the stalks, the hair and the veining are not 100% U dioica, if I try to put a finger on it

To me, the plant looks more like Urtica urens. The land where it was growing, has been disturbed. I sort of ruled Boehmeria out. The stinger situation. I'll have to go back and see if it deserves the common name of fire nettle lol. Thank you everyone for your comments, thank you Thedecoguy, Old Forester, Perenn, Floral, Geoforce, Linaria!