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beach sand-spurrey, beach sand-spurry, sticky sand spurry, sticky sand-spurrey

greater sea-spurrey, media sandspurry, sand spurry, spergulaire marginée, spergulaire moyenne, stout sand-spurrey

Habit Plants strongly perennial with branched, woody base, stout, 5–40 cm, densely stipitate-glandular in inflorescence or throughout.
Taproots

becoming stout, woody.

Stems

erect or ascending to prostrate, usually branched proximally;

main stem 0.8–3 mm diam. proximally.

Leaves

stipules conspicuous, dull white to tan, narrowly triangular, 4.5–11 mm, apex long-acuminate;

blade linear, (0.6–)1–5.5 cm, fleshy, apex apiculate to spine-tipped;

axillary leaves 1–2+ per cluster.

Pedicels

erect, divergent, or reflexed in fruit.

Flowers

sepals connate 0.5–1.8 mm proximally, lobes often 3-veined, ovate to lanceolate, 4.5–7 mm, to 8 mm in fruit, margins 0.3–0.7 mm wide, apex blunt to rounded;

petals white or pink to rosy, elliptic to obovate, 0.9–1.3 times as long as sepals in flower;

stamens 9–10;

styles 0.6–3 mm.

Capsules

tan, 4.6–10 mm, 0.8–1.4 times as long as sepals.

Seeds

± red-brown, often with submarginal groove or depression, suborbiculate to pyriform, compressed, (0.6–)0.7–1.2 mm, smooth to faintly or prominently tuberculate or sculpturing of parallel, wavy lines or of low, rounded mounds, not papillate;

wing absent or white to reddish brown proximally, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, margins irregular.

Cymes

simple to 3-compound or flowers solitary and axillary.

Spergularia macrotheca

Spergularia media

Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC; including nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; CO; IL; IN; MA; MI; MT; ND; NM; NY; OH; OR; PA; UT; WY; ON; QC; coastal Europe; Asia; Africa (Mediterranean region) [Introduced widely]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

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

Varieties 5 (1 in the flora).

Although a proposal to reject Spergularia media as a confused name (J. Lambinon 1981) was rejected, some authors still favor that argument, preferring to use the name S. maritima for this species.

Spergularia media is one of the “highway halophytes” (A. A. Reznicek 1980) that have spread along highways that are heavily salted during the winter, where saline areas have been created. Spergularia distribution has been investigated in Ohio (A. W. Cusick 1983), where such records were first noted in the early 1970s.

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

Key
1. Petals pink to rosy; styles 0.6-1.2 mm
var. macrotheca
1. Petals white; styles 1.2-3 mm
→ 2
2. Capsules 1.2-1.4 times as long as sepals; styles 1.2-1.9 mm
var. leucantha
2. Capsules 0.8-1 times as long as sepals; styles 2-3 mm
var. longistyla
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 18. FNA vol. 5, p. 21.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Polycarpoideae > Spergularia Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Polycarpoideae > Spergularia
Sibling taxa
S. atrosperma, S. bocconi, S. canadensis, S. diandra, S. echinosperma, S. media, S. platensis, S. rubra, S. salina, S. villosa
S. atrosperma, S. bocconi, S. canadensis, S. diandra, S. echinosperma, S. macrotheca, S. platensis, S. rubra, S. salina, S. villosa
Subordinate taxa
S. macrotheca var. leucantha, S. macrotheca var. longistyla, S. macrotheca var. macrotheca
S. media var. media
Synonyms Arenaria macrotheca Arenaria media
Name authority (Hornemann ex Chamisso & Schlechtendal) Heynhold: Alph. Aufz. Gew. 689. (1846) (Linnaeus) C. Presl: Fl. Sicul. 161. (1826)
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