The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

céraiste des champs, field chickweed, field mouse-ear chickweed, field or prairie mouse-ear chickweed, meadow chickweed, starry cerastium

dry chickweed, fork chickweed, fork mouse-ear chickweed

Habit Plants perennial, clumped and taprooted, or mat-forming and long-creeping rhizomatous. Plants annual, with slender taproot.
Stems

flowering shoots often decumbent proximally, 5–20(–30) cm, glandular-pubescent distally, pilose-subglabrous, deflexed or spreading proximally;

non-flowering shoots present; small tufts of leaves present in axils of proximal leaves.

erect, simple or several from branched caudex, 15–30 cm, densely viscid-glandular; small axillary tufts of leaves usually absent.

Leaves

not marcescent, sessile, ± spatulate proximally;

blade linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 4–30 × 0.5–6 mm, apex acute, rarely obtuse, subglabrous to softly pubescent, sometimes glandular.

not marcescent, sessile;

blade broadly linear to linear lanceolate to oblong, 12–30(–50) × 3–10(–15) mm, apex usually acute, densely viscid-glandular.

Inflorescences

lax, 1–20-flowered cymes, pubescence short, glandular;

bracts lanceolate, margins narrow, scarious, glandular-pubescent.

dense, 3–30-flowered cymes;

bracts foliaceous, glandular-pubescent.

Pedicels

curved just below calyx, 5–30 mm, 1–6 times as long as sepals, glandular-pubescent.

erect, 2–10 mm, shorter than sepals, with dense, spreading, glandular pubescence.

Flowers

sepals narrowly lanceolate to lance-elliptic, 3.5–7 mm, margins narrow, softly pubescent;

petals obovate, 7.5–12.5 mm, ca. 2 times as long as sepals, apex 2-fid;

stamens 10;

anthers 0.8–1.1 mm;

styles 5.

sepals lanceolate, 6–11 mm, margins narrow, apex acute, pubescence dense, stout, shorter than sepal tips, viscid-glandular;

petals oblanceolate, 8–10 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex shortly 2-fid;

stamens 5;

styles 5.

Capsules

cylindric, curved, 7.5–11.5 × 2.5–4 mm, (1–)1.5–2 times as long as sepals;

teeth 10, erect, margins convolute.

narrowly conic, straight, 10–15 mm, ca. 2 times as long as sepals;

teeth 10, erect, margins convolute.

Seeds

brown, 0.6–1.2 mm diam., tuberculate;

testa not inflated.

chestnut brown, ca. 1.3 mm, tuberculate;

testa not inflated.

2n

= 36, 72, (108, Europe).

= 38.

Cerastium arvense

Cerastium dichotomum

Phenology Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Arable land, roadsides
Elevation 300-900 m (1000-3000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; CT; IA; ID; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; SD; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Worldwide
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; s Europe [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 2+ (2 in the flora).

The infraspecific taxonomy of Cerastium arvense is subject to many different interpretations. While many subspecies have been recognized, the “actual” number is uncertain because of worldwide distribution, wide range of variation, and conflicting taxonomies.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Cerastium dichotomum is very similar to C. inflatum Link from the Middle East [C. dichotomum subsp. inflatum (Link) Cullen] and is sometimes equated with it, but that species differs from C. dichotomum in having an inflated fruiting calyx. Reports of C. siculum Gussone in North America are referable to C. dichotomum.

Cerastium dichotomum is a rare weed of arable land and roadsides.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Taproot absent, plant strongly rhizomatous with long-creeping shoots; flowering stems usually 25-30 cm, often purple pigmented proximally, pubescence eglandular (glandular hairs present in inflorescence), soft, short or subglabrous; sepals 5-7 mm; anthers 1-1.1 mm; petals usually turning brown when dried
subsp. arvense
1. Taprooted or shortly rhizomatous, forming clumps; flowering stems usually 5-20 cm, green or straw colored, glandular-pubescent; sepals 3.5-6(-7) mm; anthers 0.8-0.9 mm; petals usually remaining white when dried
subsp. strictum
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 79. FNA vol. 5, p. 84.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Cerastium Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Cerastium
Sibling taxa
C. aleuticum, C. alpinum, C. arcticum, C. axillare, C. beeringianum, C. bialynickii, C. brachypetalum, C. brachypodum, C. cerastoides, C. dichotomum, C. diffusum, C. dubium, C. fastigiatum, C. fischerianum, C. fontanum, C. glomeratum, C. maximum, C. nutans, C. pumilum, C. regelii, C. semidecandrum, C. terrae-novae, C. texanum, C. tomentosum, C. velutinum, C. viride
C. aleuticum, C. alpinum, C. arcticum, C. arvense, C. axillare, C. beeringianum, C. bialynickii, C. brachypetalum, C. brachypodum, C. cerastoides, C. diffusum, C. dubium, C. fastigiatum, C. fischerianum, C. fontanum, C. glomeratum, C. maximum, C. nutans, C. pumilum, C. regelii, C. semidecandrum, C. terrae-novae, C. texanum, C. tomentosum, C. velutinum, C. viride
Subordinate taxa
C. arvense subsp. arvense, C. arvense subsp. strictum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 438. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 438. (1753)
Web links