Cerastium fontanum |
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common chickweed, common mouse-ear chickweed, céraiste commun, mouse-ear chickweed |
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Habit | Plants perennial (rarely annual), tufted to mat-forming, often rhizomatous. | ||||
Stems | flowering stems erect from decumbent base, branched proximally, 10–45 cm, softly pubescent, eglandular with straight hairs; nonflowering shoots, when present, produced proximally, decumbent, rooting at nodes, branched, 5–20 cm, often subglabrous with alternating lines of eglandular hairs; small axillary tufts of leaves usually absent. |
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Leaves | not marcescent; blade 10–25(–40) × 3–8(–12) mm, densely covered with patent to ascending, colorless, long, eglandular hairs; leaves of flowering shoots in distant pairs, sessile, blade elliptic to ovate-oblong, apex subacute; leaves of sterile shoots pseudopetiolate, often spatulate, blade oblanceolate, apex obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | lax, 3–50-flowered cymes; bracts lanceolate, reduced, herbaceous, eglandular-pubescent, distal often with narrow, scarious margins. |
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Pedicels | somewhat curved distally, 2–10(–20) mm, longer than sepals, densely pubescent with patent, eglandular, rarely glandular hairs. |
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Flowers | sepals ovate-lanceolate, 5–7 mm, margins narrow, apex acute, scarious, pubescent with eglandular, rarely glandular, hairs; petals oblanceolate, 1–1.5 times as long as sepals, apex deeply 2-fid; stamens 10, occasionally 5; styles 5. |
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Capsules | narrowly cylindric, curved, 9–17 mm, ca. 2 times sepals; teeth 10, erect, margins convolute. |
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Seeds | reddish brown, 0.4–1.2 mm, bluntly tuberculate; testa not inflated, tightly enclosing seed. |
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2n | = 122–152, usually 144. |
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Cerastium fontanum |
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Distribution |
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Europe [Introduced elsewhere]
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Discussion | Subspecies 4 (2 in the flora). Cerastium fontanum is a highly variable and complex species. It often has been reported as C. vulgatum Linnaeus, an ambiguous name; see discussion under the genus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5. | ||||
Parent taxa | |||||
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Name authority | Baumgarten: Enum. Stirp. Transsilv. 1: 425. (1816) | ||||
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