Stellaria media |
Stellaria longipes |
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chickweed, common chickweed, common starwort, common stitchwort, mouron des oiseaux |
Goldie's starwort, long-stalk starwort |
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Habit | Plants annual or winter annual, green, with slender taproot. | Plants perennial, forming small to large clumps or mats, or diffuse, from slender rhizomes. | ||||
Stems | decumbent or ascending, diffusely branched, 4-sided, 5–40 cm, with single line of hairs along each internode. |
erect to straggling, branched or not, 4-angled, 3–32 cm, glabrous or softly pubescent, angles not minutely papillate-scabrid. |
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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. |
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. |
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Inflorescences | terminal, 5–many-flowered cymes; bracts ovate and shortly acuminate to lanceolate-acute, 1–40 mm, herbaceous. |
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. |
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Pedicels | ascending, usually straight, deflexed at base in fruit, 3–40 mm, usually with line of hairs. |
ascending to erect, straight, 5–30 mm, glabrous or softly pubescent. |
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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. |
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. |
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Capsules | green to straw colored, ovoid-oblong, 3–5 mm, somewhat longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. |
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. |
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Seeds | reddish brown, broadly reniform to round, 0.9–1.3 mm diam., with obtuse, round, or flat-topped (broader than tall) tubercles. |
brown, reniform to globose, 0.6–0.9 mm diam., shallowly tuberculate to smooth. |
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2n | = 40, 42, 44. |
= 52–104, (107). |
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Stellaria media |
Stellaria longipes |
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Phenology | Flowering year-round where climatic conditions permit. | |||||
Habitat | Cultivated ground, waste places, open woodlands | |||||
Elevation | 0-2500 m (0-8200 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
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]
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AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MI; MN; MT; ND; NM; NY; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; YT; Circumpolar
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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.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 109. | FNA vol. 5, p. 108. | ||||
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Alsine media, S. apetala, S. media var. procera | Alsine longipes | ||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Villars: Hist. Pl. Dauphiné 3: 615. (1789) | Goldie: Edinburgh Philos. J. 6: 327. (1822) | ||||
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