Stellaria crispa |
Stellaria pubera |
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crisp sandwort, crisp starwort, crisped starwort, curled starwort, ruffled starwort |
star chickweed |
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Habit | Plants perennial, forming small to large mats, from slender rhizomes. | Plants perennial, with stems loosely tufted, rhizomatous. |
Stems | trailing to ascending, branched, 4-angled, 10–60 cm, glabrous. |
erect, branched, 4-sided, 10–40 cm, with alternating lines of spreading, soft, flexuous, mainly eglandular hairs. |
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. |
usually sessile (distal), often short-petiolate (proximal); blade elliptic, obovate, or lanceolate, widest at or beyond middle, 1–10 cm × 5–35 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, glabrous to sparsely pubescent adaxially, ciliate on margins and abaxial midrib. |
Inflorescences | with flowers solitary in leaf axils; bracts absent. |
terminal, 3–70-flowered cymes; bracts elliptic to lanceolate, 7–65 mm, herbaceous. |
Pedicels | ascending, straight, mostly 5–30 mm, glabrous. |
erect in flower, often deflexed at base in fruit, 5–40 mm, softly pubescent. |
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. |
(8–)10–12 mm diam.; sepals 5, with midrib, ovate, 3.5–6 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex obtuse to acute, softly and often sparsely pubescent; petals 5, 4–8 mm, longer than sepals; stamens 10; styles 3, ascending, 2.5 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. |
green to straw colored, broadly ovoid, 3.5–5.5 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. |
Seeds | brown, broadly elliptic, 0.7–1 mm (longest axis), distinctly rugose. |
brown, obliquely reniform, 1.5–2 mm diam., coarsely sulcate-papillate. |
2n | = 26, 52. |
= 30. |
Stellaria crispa |
Stellaria pubera |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Wet soil in woods, shaded streambanks and shores | Rich deciduous woods, alluvial bottomlands |
Elevation | 0-2300 m (0-7500 ft) | 100-1000 m (300-3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AK; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC
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AL; DC; FL; GA; IN; KY; MD; NC; NE; OH; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
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Discussion | Stellaria pubera has been introduced in Nebraska and possibly in Illinois. It is very similar to S. corei but is distinguished by its shorter, more ovate sepals. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 104. | FNA vol. 5, p. 112. |
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Alsine crispa, S. borealis var. crispa | Alsine pubera, Alsine pubera var. tennesseensis |
Name authority | Chamisso & Schlechtendal: Linnaea 1: 51. (1826) | Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 273. (1803) |
Web links |
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