Cerastium glomeratum |
Cerastium alpinum |
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céraiste aggloméré, large mouse ears, sticky chickweed, sticky mouse-ear chickweed |
alpine chickweed, alpine mouse-ear chickweed, céraiste alpin |
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Habit | Plants annual, with slender taproots. | Plants perennial, mat-forming, rhizomatous. | ||||
Stems | erect or ascending, branched, 5–45 cm, hairy, glandular at least distally, rarely eglandular; small axillary tufts of leaves absent. |
prostrate or ascending, tomentose (very rarely subglabrous), hairs white, translucent, long, soft, flexuous, some usually also short and glandular; flowering shoots ascending, 5–20 cm; small axillary tufts of leaves usually absent; nonflowering shoots ± prostrate, to 6 cm. |
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Leaves | not marcescent, ± sessile; blade 5–20(–30) × 2–8(–15) mm, apex apiculate, covered with spreading, white, long hairs; basal with blade oblanceolate or obovate, narrowed proximally, sometimes spatulate; cauline with blade broadly ovate or elliptic-ovate. |
marcescent or not, sessile; blade obovate or ovate to elliptic-oblanceolate, elliptic, or lanceolate, usually 10–18 × 5–7 mm, apex obtuse, pubescence as on stems. |
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Inflorescences | 3–50-flowered, aggregated into dense, cymose clusters or in more-open dichasia; bracts: proximal herbaceous, distal lanceolate, apex acute, with long, mainly eglandular hairs. |
open, (1–)2–4-flowered cymes; bracts lanceolate, acute, margins narrow, scarious, glandular-pubescent. |
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Pedicels | erect to spreading, often arcuate distally, 0.1–5 mm, shorter than capsule, glandular-pubescent. |
straight but often becoming angled at base and curved at apex, slender, 5–30 mm, often elongating to 3 or 4 times as long as sepals, pubescence usually dense, hairs both long, flexuous, multicellular, and short, glandular, viscid. |
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Flowers | sepals green, rarely dark-red tipped, lanceolate, 4–5 mm, margins narrow, apex very acute, usually with glandular hairs as well as long white hairs usually extending beyond apex; petals oblanceolate, 3–5 mm, rarely absent, usually shorter than sepals, apex deeply 2-fid; stamens 10; styles 5. |
sepals green, often violet tipped, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 7.5–10 mm, margins ± narrow, apex acute to obtuse, densely pubescent, hairs both long, eglandular and short, glandular; petals 1–2 times as long as sepals, apex shallowly 2-fid; stamens 10; styles 5. |
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Capsules | narrowly cylindric, curved, 7–10 mm; teeth 10, erect, margins convolute. |
cylindric, slightly curved, 12–16 mm, to 2 times as long as sepals; teeth 10, erect, margins convolute. |
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Seeds | pale brown, 0.5–0.6 mm, finely tuberculate; testa inflated or not. |
dark brown, 1–1.4 mm diam., acutely tuberculate; testa not inflated. |
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2n | = 72. |
= 72, 108. |
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Cerastium glomeratum |
Cerastium alpinum |
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Phenology | Flowering throughout growing season. | |||||
Habitat | Arable land, waste places, roadsides | |||||
Elevation | 0-1800 m (0-5900 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MO; MS; MT; NC; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WA; WV; BC; NF; NS; ON; QC; YT; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced and common in Mexico]
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MB; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; Canada; Greenland; Europe (Iceland, Scandinavia)
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Discussion | Cerastium glomeratum often has been reported as C. viscosum Linneaus, an ambiguous name; see discussion under the genus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 3+ (2 in the flora). The Cerastium alpinum group of species is a difficult complex of intergrading taxa. E. Hultén (1956) considered this complex to be the result of worldwide introgression among the various taxa. Members of this group in North America include C. aleuticum, C. alpinum, C. arcticum, C. beeringianum, C. bialynickii, C. fischerianum, C. regelii, and C. terrae-novae. Cerastium alpinum itself is distinguished from all other members of the complex by its lanate pubescence, which consists of long, silvery, translucent, multicellular, flexuous, often tangled hairs; the more or less square base of the calyx; the convex margins of the sepals; and, in well-grown plants, the long, slender, divaricate pedicels. In western North America, Cerastium alpinum is replaced by C. beeringianum, which has long, straight, strigose, somewhat fuscous hairs, usually smaller flowers, and smaller seeds. The two species intergrade in eastern Canada; intermediate specimens were named C. alpinum var. strigosum Hultén. Cerastium arcticum differs from C. alpinum, with which it often grows, in its straight, somewhat fuscous hairs; calyx which is round at the base; long, narrowly lanceolate sepals; large, straight, broad capsules; and broad, obtuse cauline leaves. Like C. alpinum, it usually has large flowers with the petals much longer than the sepals. Many infraspecific taxa have been named in Cerastium alpinum but in North America it is much less variable than elsewhere. Two forms can be recognized at either the varietal or subspecific level. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 87. | FNA vol. 5, p. 77. | ||||
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Cerastium | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Cerastium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | C. acutatum, C. fulvum | |||||
Name authority | Thuillier: Fl. Env. Paris ed. 2, 226. (1799) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 438. (1753) | ||||
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