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chickweed, common chickweed, common starwort, common stitchwort, mouron des oiseaux

Habit Plants annual or winter annual, green, with slender taproot.
Stems

decumbent or ascending, diffusely branched, 4-sided, 5–40 cm, with single line of hairs along each internode.

Leaves

petiolate (proximal) or ± sessile (distal);

blade usually green, ovate to broadly elliptic, 0.5–4 cm × 2–20 mm, base round to cuneate, margins entire, apex acute or shortly acuminate, ± glabrous or ciliate at base.

Inflorescences

terminal, 5–many-flowered cymes;

bracts ovate and shortly acuminate to lanceolate-acute, 1–40 mm, herbaceous.

Pedicels

ascending, usually straight, deflexed at base in fruit, 3–40 mm, usually with line of hairs.

Flowers

2–5 mm diam.;

sepals 5, with obscure midrib, ovate-lanceolate, 4.5–5(–6) mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex obtuse, usually glandular-hairy;

petals absent or 5, 1–4 mm, shorter than to equaling sepals;

stamens 3–5(–8);

anthers red-violet;

styles 3, outwardly curved, becoming curled, 0.5–1 mm.

Capsules

green to straw colored, ovoid-oblong, 3–5 mm, somewhat longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves;

carpophore absent.

Seeds

reddish brown, broadly reniform to round, 0.9–1.3 mm diam., with obtuse, round, or flat-topped (broader than tall) tubercles.

2n

= 40, 42, 44.

Stellaria media

Phenology Flowering year-round where climatic conditions permit.
Habitat Cultivated ground, waste places, open woodlands
Elevation 0-2500 m (0-8200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; Europe [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Stellaria media, now a cosmopolitan weed, is a very polymorphic species, varying in size, habit, pubescence, petal length, stamen number, and seed size and surface detail.

The Stellaria media complex consists of three very similar and closely related species, S. media, S. neglecta, and S. pallida. They can almost always be distinguished by the characters given in the key, but in a few doubtful cases a chromosome count is desirable for positive identification. The problem arises from the considerable phenotypic variation which is displayed by S. media, and to a lesser extent by S. pallida. There is no evidence for gene exchange between these species. Stellaria pallida is autogamous and sometimes cleistogamous; S. media is both autogamous and occasionally cross-pollinated by flies; S. neglecta is usually cross-pollinated by flies but is self-compatible.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 109.
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. littoralis, S. longifolia, S. longipes, S. neglecta, S. nitens, S. obtusa, S. pallida, S. palustris, S. parva, S. porsildii, S. pubera, S. ruscifolia, S. umbellata
Synonyms Alsine media, S. apetala, S. media var. procera
Name authority (Linnaeus) Villars: Hist. Pl. Dauphiné 3: 615. (1789)
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