Stellaria littoralis |
Stellaria obtusa |
|
---|---|---|
beach starwort, beach starwort or chickweed, shore chickweed |
blunt-sepal starwort, obtuse starwort, Rocky Mountain chickweed, Rocky Mountain starwort |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, straggling to scandent, from elongate rhizomes. | Plants perennial, creeping, often matted but not forming cushions, rhizomatous. |
Stems | ascending, often decumbent at base, branched, 4-sided, 10–60 cm, uniformly and softly pubescent. |
prostrate, branched, 4-sided, 3–23 cm, internodes equaling or longer than leaves, glabrous, rarely pilose. |
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. |
sessile or short-petiolate; blade broadly ovate to elliptic, 0.2–1.2 cm × 0.9–7 mm, base round or cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, shiny, glabrous or ciliate near base. |
Inflorescences | terminal, 5–many-flowered, leafy cymes; bracts foliaceous, 4–40 mm, margins ciliate, not scarious. |
with flowers solitary, axillary; bracts absent. |
Pedicels | ascending to erect, straight, spreading to reflexed at base in fruit, 5–20 mm. |
spreading, 3–12 mm, glabrous. |
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. |
1.5–2 mm diam.; sepals 4–5, veins obscure, midrib sometimes apparent, ± ovate, 1.5–3.5 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex ± obtuse, glabrous; petals absent; stamens 10 or fewer; styles 3(–4), curled, shorter than 0.5 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. |
green to pale straw colored, translucent, globose to broadly ovoid, 2.3–3.5 mm, 1.9–2 times as long as sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. |
Seeds | reddish brown, broadly and obliquely ovate, ± 1 mm diam., minutely rugose. |
grayish black, broadly elliptic, 0.5–0.7 mm diam., finely reticulate. |
2n | = 26, 52, ca. 65, ca. 78. |
|
Stellaria littoralis |
Stellaria obtusa |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering late spring–summer. |
Habitat | Marshy fields, marshes, coastal bluffs | Moist areas in woods, shaded edges of creeks, talus slopes |
Elevation | less than 100 m (less than 300 ft) | 300-3400 m (1000-11200 ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
CA; CO; ID; MT; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
|
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. | FNA vol. 5, p. 110. |
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Alsine obtusa, Alsine viridula, Alsine washingtoniana, S. viridula, S. washingtoniana | |
Name authority | Torrey: in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 4(5): 69. (1857) | Engelmann: Bot. Gaz. 7: 5. (1882) |
Web links |
|