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salt-marsh starwort, saltmarsh stitchwort

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

decumbent, freely branched, square, 2–20 cm, glabrous, rooting at proximal nodes.

Leaves

sessile;

blade elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 0.4–1.5 cm × 1–5 mm, succulent, base cuneate to rounded, margins entire, apex acute to obtuse, glabrous or with few cilia along margins.

Inflorescences

with flowers solitary in axils of foliage leaves;

bracts absent.

Pedicels

ascending, straight or nearly so, usually 5–10(–30) mm, glabrous.

Flowers

ca. 10 mm diam.;

sepals 5, prominently 1–3-veined, lanceolate, 4–5 mm, margins convex, narrow, scarious, apex acute, glabrous;

petals 5, 4–6 mm, equaling sepals;

stamens 10;

styles 3, ascending and outwardly curved, 1–1.5 mm.

Capsules

straw colored, ovoid, 4–5 mm, equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves;

carpophore absent.

Seeds

pale brown, broadly and obliquely reniform, 0.8–1 mm diam., smooth to slightly rugose.

2n

= 26.

Stellaria humifusa

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Lake shores, beaches, marshes, salt marshes, mainly northern coastal
Elevation 0-100 m (0-300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; ME; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; YT; SPM; Greenland; arctic Europe; Asia (Russian Far East, Siberia)
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Stellaria humifusa is often confused with S. crassifolia, but has thicker stems and fleshy leaves that wrinkle and tend to turn brownish when dried. Also, in S. crassifolia the long pedicels are very slender and sharply angled below the capsule.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 106.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria
Sibling taxa
S. alaskana, S. alsine, S. americana, S. borealis, S. calycantha, S. corei, S. crassifolia, S. crispa, S. cuspidata, S. dicranoides, S. fontinalis, S. graminea, S. holostea, 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 humifusa, S. humifusa var. marginata, S. humifusa var. oblongifolia, S. humifusa var. suberecta
Name authority Rottbøll: Skr. Kiøbenhavnske Selsk. Laerd. Elsk. 10: 447, plate 4, fig. 14. (1770)
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