Nettle
A common stinging plant — humble ground cover that defends itself with small painful contact.
A nettle in a dream is the dream's image of a humble common plant that defends itself with small painful contact and, when handled properly, also feeds. Nettles sting through bare skin; the same plant cooked becomes soup. The dream brings the nettle when something in your life — a relative who is hard to approach, a piece of work that hurts on first contact, a community with a sharp first impression — is carrying both the sting and the nourishment, and the difference is in how it is taken hold of. A nettle patch crossed in gloves is the dream affirming the right preparation. A nettle grasped bare-handed in a hurry is the dream noting that the protection was available and was skipped, and the contact is now stinging for exactly the reason the plant has been stinging hands for centuries.