Cerastium fontanum |
Caryophyllaceae subfam. alsinoideae |
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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. | Herbs, winter annual, annual, biennial, or perennial; taprooted and/or rhizomatous, rarely with tuberous thickenings (Pseudostellaria). | ||||
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. |
prostrate to ascending or erect, simple or branched. |
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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. |
opposite, connate proximally or not, often petiolate (basal leaves), not stipulate; blade subulate or linear to spatulate, lanceolate, or broadly ovate, seldom succulent. |
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Inflorescences | lax, 3–50-flowered cymes; bracts lanceolate, reduced, herbaceous, eglandular-pubescent, distal often with narrow, scarious margins. |
terminal or axillary cymes, or flowers solitary; bracts foliaceous or reduced, herbaceous to scarious (or rarely absent); involucel bracteoles absent. |
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Pedicels | somewhat curved distally, 2–10(–20) mm, longer than sepals, densely pubescent with patent, eglandular, rarely glandular hairs. |
present or rarely flowers sessile. |
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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. |
bisexual or seldom unisexual, sometimes inconspicuous; perianth and androecium hypogynous or perigynous, often slightly; hypanthium cup-, dish-, or disc-shaped; sepals (4–)5, distinct or seldom connate basally, sometimes hooded, not awned; petals absent or (1–)4–5, usually white, sometimes translucent, yellowish white, pink, or brownish, seldom clawed, auricles absent, coronal appendages absent, blade apex entire or 2-fid, sometimes jagged or emarginate, rarely laciniate; stamens absent or (1–)5(–10), in 1 or 2 whorls, arising from base of ovary, a nectariferous disc, or sometimes the hypanthium or hypanthium rim; staminodes absent or 1–5(–8); ovary 1- or rarely 3-locular (Wilhelmsia); styles (2–)3–5(–6), distinct; stigmas (2–)3–5(–6). |
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Fruits | capsules, or rarely utricles (Scleranthus), opening by (2–)3–6, occasionally 8 or 10 valves or (3 or) 6–10 teeth; carpophore present or often absent. |
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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. |
1–60+, yellowish or tan to dark red or often brown or black, usually reniform or triangular to circular and laterally compressed or ovoid to globose, rarely oblong and dorsiventrally compressed (Holosteum); embryo usually peripheral and curved, rarely central and straight (Holosteum). |
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x | = 6–15, 17–19, 23. |
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2n | = 122–152, usually 144. |
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Cerastium fontanum |
Caryophyllaceae subfam. alsinoideae |
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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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North-temperate regions; South America (Andean region); Europe (Mediterranean region); w Asia; c Asia (Himalayas, Mediterranean region); Africa (Mediterranean region) |
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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.) |
Genera 30, species ca. 1040 (16 genera, 137 species in the flora). Alsinoideae, often considered basal in the family and the least specialized, is in some ways the most heterogeneous of the subfamilies. Members of its largest tribe (Alsineae) share the following characteristics: stipules absent, sepals free or at most basally connate, and capsular fruits. Indehiscent fruits, relatively short hypanthia, and other floral reductions occur in varying combinations in the approximately 30 species placed in four other tribes. A broad molecular survey of Alsinoideae has revealed two major lineages and lack of support for the existing tribal circumscriptions (M. Nepokroeff et al. 2002). About three-fourths of the species are members of Arenaria, Cerastium, Minuartia, and Stellaria. Attempts have been made to move Scleranthus (fruit a utricle surrounded by an enlarged hypanthium) from Alsinoideae to either Paronychioideae (J. Hutchinson 1973, as Illecebraceae) or Scleranthaceae (A. Takhtajan 1997). Recent molecular and morphological studies by R. D. Smissen et. al. (2002, 2003) supported its retention in the Alsinoideae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5. | FNA vol. 5, p. 50. | ||||
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Cerastium | Caryophyllaceae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Baumgarten: Enum. Stirp. Transsilv. 1: 425. (1816) | Fenzl: in S. L. Endlicher, Gen. Pl. 13: 963. (1840) | ||||
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