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crisp sandwort, crisp starwort, crisped starwort, curled starwort, ruffled starwort

Habit Plants perennial, forming small to large mats, from slender rhizomes.
Stems

trailing to ascending, branched, 4-angled, 10–60 cm, glabrous.

Leaves

subsessile;

blade broadly elliptic to ovate, 0.4–2.6 cm × 2–15 mm, base round to cuneate, margins entire, apex acuminate, glabrous or with a few scattered cilia.

Inflorescences

with flowers solitary in leaf axils;

bracts absent.

Pedicels

ascending, straight, mostly 5–30 mm, glabrous.

Flowers

4–5 mm;

sepals 5, prominently 3-veined, lanceolate, 2–4 mm, margins broadly scarious, apex acute to acuminate, glabrous;

petals usually absent, rarely 1–5 and much shorter than sepals;

stamens 10 or fewer;

styles 3, spreading to ascending, curved but not curled, ca. 1 mm.

Capsules

straw colored or brownish, ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, 3.5–6 mm, equaling or slightly exceeding sepals, apex broadly acute, opening by 6 valves;

carpophore absent.

Seeds

brown, broadly elliptic, 0.7–1 mm (longest axis), distinctly rugose.

2n

= 26, 52.

Stellaria crispa

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Wet soil in woods, shaded streambanks and shores
Elevation 0-2300 m (0-7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 104.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria
Sibling taxa
S. alaskana, S. alsine, S. americana, S. borealis, S. calycantha, S. corei, S. crassifolia, S. cuspidata, S. dicranoides, S. fontinalis, S. graminea, S. holostea, S. humifusa, S. irrigua, S. littoralis, S. longifolia, S. longipes, S. media, S. neglecta, S. nitens, S. obtusa, S. pallida, S. palustris, S. parva, S. porsildii, S. pubera, S. ruscifolia, S. umbellata
Synonyms Alsine crispa, S. borealis var. crispa
Name authority Chamisso & Schlechtendal: Linnaea 1: 51. (1826)
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