Flora of North America species comparison

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Cerastium brachypetalum

gray chickweed, gray mouse-ear chickweed, grey mouse-ear
Habit Plants annual.
Stems

erect, simple or branched at base, 5.5–30 cm, shaggy, hairs silvery, spreading-ascending; small axillary tufts of leaves absent.
Leaves

not marces-cent;

blade 4–15(–20) × 1.5–5(–7) mm, pubescence of long, glandular and/or eglandular hairs;

basal ± crowded, blade oblanceolate, spatulate, apex obtuse;

cauline sessile, blade lanceolate or elliptic, apex acute.
Inflorescences

lax, dichasiate, 3–30-flowered cymes;

bracts herbaceous, lanceolate, densely pubescent, with long, ascending, glandular or eglandular hairs.
Pedicels

erect or ascending, bent distally in fruit, 6–15 mm, longer than capsule, shaggy, glandular or eglandular.
Flowers

sepals lanceolate, 4–4.5 mm, foliaceous, with or without narrow margins, densely pubescent, hairs exceeding sepal tips;

petals oblanceolate, 2–3 mm, ca. 0.5 times as long as sepals, apex 2-fid, sparsely ciliate proximally;

stamens 10, with few long hairs near filament base;

styles 5.
Capsules

cylindric, slightly curved near apex, 5–7 mm, ca. 1.5 times as long as sepals;

teeth 10, erect, margins convolute.
Seeds

pale brown, 0.5 mm diam., acutely tuberculate;

testa not inflated.
2n

= 72 (Europe), 88, 90.

Cerastium brachypetalum
Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Dry, sandy places, roadsides, arable land, disturbed, open areas
Elevation 0-400 m (0-1300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MO; MS; NC; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV; Eurasia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The wholly herbaceous bracts of Cerastium brachypetalum distinguish it from C. fontanum subsp. vulgare, C. semidecandrum, and C. pumilum; the ciliate petal and filament bases distinguish it from C. diffusum and C. glomeratum. Cerastium brachypetalum differs from all those species in the long, silvery hairs that give it a grayish appearance. In Europe C. brachypetalum is more variable and eight subspecies have been recognized, two of which—subsp. brachypetalum and subsp. tauricum—occur in North America. However, they differ only in the absence or presence of glandular hairs, an insufficient distinction for recognition at the subspecific level.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 82.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Cerastium
Sibling taxa
C. aleuticum, C. alpinum, C. arcticum, C. arvense, C. axillare, C. beeringianum, C. bialynickii, 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
Synonyms C. brachypetalum subsp. tauricum, C. tauricum
Name authority Persoon: Syn. Pl. 1: 520. (1805)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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