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star chickweed

Habit Plants perennial, with stems loosely tufted, rhizomatous.
Stems

erect, branched, 4-sided, 10–40 cm, with alternating lines of spreading, soft, flexuous, mainly eglandular hairs.

Leaves

usually sessile (distal), often short-petiolate (proximal);

blade elliptic, obovate, or lanceolate, widest at or beyond middle, 1–10 cm × 5–35 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, glabrous to sparsely pubescent adaxially, ciliate on margins and abaxial midrib.

Inflorescences

terminal, 3–70-flowered cymes;

bracts elliptic to lanceolate, 7–65 mm, herbaceous.

Pedicels

erect in flower, often deflexed at base in fruit, 5–40 mm, softly pubescent.

Flowers

(8–)10–12 mm diam.;

sepals 5, with midrib, ovate, 3.5–6 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex obtuse to acute, softly and often sparsely pubescent;

petals 5, 4–8 mm, longer than sepals;

stamens 10;

styles 3, ascending, 2.5 mm.

Capsules

green to straw colored, broadly ovoid, 3.5–5.5 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves;

carpophore absent.

Seeds

brown, obliquely reniform, 1.5–2 mm diam., coarsely sulcate-papillate.

2n

= 30.

Stellaria pubera

Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Rich deciduous woods, alluvial bottomlands
Elevation 100-1000 m (300-3300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; DC; FL; GA; IN; KY; MD; NC; NE; OH; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Stellaria pubera has been introduced in Nebraska and possibly in Illinois. It is very similar to S. corei but is distinguished by its shorter, more ovate sepals.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 112.
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. media, S. neglecta, S. nitens, S. obtusa, S. pallida, S. palustris, S. parva, S. porsildii, S. ruscifolia, S. umbellata
Synonyms Alsine pubera, Alsine pubera var. tennesseensis
Name authority Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 273. (1803)
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