Stellaria pubera |
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star chickweed |
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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 |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Rich deciduous woods, alluvial bottomlands |
Elevation | 100-1000 m (300-3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; DC; FL; GA; IN; KY; MD; NC; NE; OH; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
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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 | |
Synonyms | Alsine pubera, Alsine pubera var. tennesseensis |
Name authority | Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 273. (1803) |
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