Flora of North America species comparison

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Stellaria littoralis

beach starwort, beach starwort or chickweed, shore chickweed
Habit Plants perennial, straggling to scandent, from elongate rhizomes.
Stems

ascending, often decumbent at base, branched, 4-sided, 10–60 cm, uniformly and softly pubescent.
Leaves

sessile;

blade ovate to ovate-lanceolate, widest proximal to middle, 1–4.5 cm × 4–20 mm, base round, margins densely ciliate, apex shortly acuminate, pubescent on both surfaces.
Inflorescences

terminal, 5–many-flowered, leafy cymes;

bracts foliaceous, 4–40 mm, margins ciliate, not scarious.
Pedicels

ascending to erect, straight, spreading to reflexed at base in fruit, 5–20 mm.
Flowers

9–10 mm diam.;

sepals (4–)5, 3-veined, lanceolate, 2.8–5 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex acuminate, ciliate-pubescent mainly on margins and veins;

petals 5, 4–6 mm, equaling or slightly longer than sepals, blade apex deeply 2-fid;

stamens 10;

styles 3, ascending, ca. 1.5 mm.
Capsules

green to straw colored, lanceoloid-ovoid, 5–6 mm, slightly longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 3, tardily 6, ascending valves;

carpophore absent.
Seeds

reddish brown, broadly and obliquely ovate, ± 1 mm diam., minutely rugose.

Stellaria littoralis
Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Marshy fields, marshes, coastal bluffs
Elevation less than 100 m (less than 300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Stellaria littoralis is very similar to S. dichotoma Linnaeus from China, the Russian Far East, and Siberia. It may be conspecific with the latter and may have been introduced into the San Francisco area in the early days of exploration of the Pacific coast. A more detailed study is warranted.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 107.
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. humifusa, S. irrigua, 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
Name authority Torrey: in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 4(5): 69. (1857)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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