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common chickweed

Habit Plants annual but often over-wintering; from taproots.
Stems

prostrate to erect, 7–50 cm;

internode hairs in a line.

Leaves

evenly spaced; ovate to broadly elliptic, 8–45 mm, not fleshy;

margins not papillate; flat; shiny, often ciliate near base.

Inflorescences

terminal or axillary;

flowers few to many;

bracts leafy;

pedicels spreading to erect in flower, curved to reflexed in fruit.

Flowers

sepals 5, lanceolate to ovate, 3–4.5 mm; to 6+ mm in fruit; acute to obtuse, glabrous or glandular-hairy;

margins widely scarious;

veins in fruit often 1 or 3 near base;

petals 5, 0.7–0.9 × length of sepals.

Fruits

ovoid-oblong, green or tan.

Seeds

0.9–1.3 mm, dark red-brown to brown; tubercles rounded.

2n

=40, 42, 44.

Stellaria media

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Disturbed areas, cultivated fields, open woods, streambanks. Flowering Feb–Sep. 0–1500 m. BW, Casc, Col, CR, ECas, Est, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, NV, WA; cosmopolitan. Exotic.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 581
Rich Rabeler, Ronald Hartman
Sibling taxa
S. borealis, S. borealis x Stellaria longifolia, S. calycantha, S. crispa, S. graminea, S. humifusa, S. longifolia, S. longipes, S. nitens, S. obtusa, S. umbellata
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