Stellaria longipes
Stellaria longipes subsp. longipes
Goldie's starwort, long-stalk starwort
chickweed, Goldie's starwort, long-stalk starwort, starwort
erect to straggling, branched or not, 4-angled, 3–32 cm, glabrous or softly pubescent, angles not minutely papillate-scabrid.
sessile;
blade green, frequently glaucous, 1–3-veined, midrib prominent, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, widest at base, 0.4–2.6(–4) cm × 1–4 mm, strongly coriaceous or not, base round, margins entire, convex, glabrous or ciliate, apex acute to acuminate, not spinescent, shiny, smooth, glabrous or sparingly villous, base usually glabrous, rarely with few cilia.
blades linear-lanceolate to ovate-triangular.
with flowers solitary, or terminal, 3–30-flowered (rarely more) cymes;
bracts lanceolate, 2–10 mm, herbaceous with scarious margins, or scarious throughout, glabrous or ciliate.
ascending to erect, straight, 5–30 mm, glabrous or softly pubescent.
5–10 mm diam.;
sepals 5, 3-veined, midrib prominent, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3.5–5 mm, margins convex, narrow, scarious, sometimes ciliate, apex acute, glabrous or pubescent;
petals 5, 3–8 mm, 1–1.5 times as long as sepals;
stamens 5–10;
styles 3(–6), ascending, curled at tip, ca. 1.5 mm.
blackish purple or straw colored, ovoid to ovoid-lanceoloid, 4–6 mm, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex broadly acute, opening by 6 valves;
carpophore absent.
purplish black.
brown, reniform to globose, 0.6–0.9 mm diam., shallowly tuberculate to smooth.
= 52–104, (107).
= 52–107, mostly 52, 78, or 104.
Stellaria longipes
Stellaria longipes subsp. longipes
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies longipes, as shown by the above synonymy, is an exceptionally variable polyploid complex. Variation in this circumboreal, circumpolar taxon is under both genic and environmental control. Character states that are under genic control, such as pubescence, are scattered more or less at random throughout the range of distribution of the complex, and there is little discernible correlation among them, or with chromosome number or environment. All populations that have been studied are interfertile, and most show a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, being affected by such environmental conditions as temperature, day length, and shade. Most populations are self-compatible, although pollination by small insects, mainly flies, is the norm. Vegetative reproduction through fragmentation of the rhizome is also common. Hence, the complex consists of a large number of interfertile but more or less self-perpetuating, highly plastic biotypes.
A presumed hybrid between Stellaria longipes and S. borealis has been collected in the La Sal Mountains of Utah, although attempts to cross the two species experimentally were unsuccessful. Hybrids between S. longipes and S. longifolia occasionally occur and have been produced artificially (C. C. Chinnappa 1985); they are sterile triploids (2n = 39).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Capsules purplish black; stems variable, commonly compact, erect; leaf blades very variable, from linear-lanceolate to ovate-triangular | subsp. longipes |
1. Capsules straw colored; stems elongate, straggling; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate | subsp. arenicola |
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