Stellaria pubera |
Stellaria fontinalis |
|
---|---|---|
star chickweed |
American water starwort, Kentucky starwort |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, with stems loosely tufted, rhizomatous. | Plants annual; taproot slender. |
Stems | erect, branched, 4-sided, 10–40 cm, with alternating lines of spreading, soft, flexuous, mainly eglandular hairs. |
straggling to ascending, branched, square, 10–25 cm, glabrous. |
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. |
sessile; blade with obscure midrib, narrowly oblanceolate to linear-spatulate, 1–3 cm × 0.8–4 mm, somewhat fleshy, base cuneate, margins entire, apex ± acute, glabrous. |
Inflorescences | terminal, 3–70-flowered cymes; bracts elliptic to lanceolate, 7–65 mm, herbaceous. |
with flowers solitary in distal leaf axils; bracts absent. |
Pedicels | erect in flower, often deflexed at base in fruit, 5–40 mm, softly pubescent. |
ascending or erect, 10–40 mm, glabrous. |
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. |
2.5–4 mm diam.; sepals 4(–5), 3-veined, ovate-lanceolate, 2.5–3 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex ± acute, glabrous; petals absent; stamens 4(–5), shorter than sepals; styles 3 or 4, ascending, ca. 0.5 mm. |
Capsules | green to straw colored, broadly ovoid, 3.5–5.5 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. |
green or straw colored, ovoid, ca. 3 mm, ± equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening to base into 3 or 4 valves; carpophore absent. |
Seeds | brown, obliquely reniform, 1.5–2 mm diam., coarsely sulcate-papillate. |
dark red-brown, orbiculate-reniform, 0.6 × 0.8 mm, shiny, tuberculate; tubercles prominent, stalked and knoblike. |
2n | = 30. |
|
Stellaria pubera |
Stellaria fontinalis |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Rich deciduous woods, alluvial bottomlands | Seasonally wet, rocky openings in wooded glades, on wet cliffs |
Elevation | 100-1000 m (300-3300 ft) | 400-500 m (1300-1600 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; DC; FL; GA; IN; KY; MD; NC; NE; OH; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
|
KY; TN |
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.) |
Stellaria fontinalis is a very rare and poorly known species of uncertain affinity. Its characters are closer to Sagina and Minuartia than Stellaria, in particular the absence of petals, the 4(–5)-merous flowers, and the distinctive sculpturing of the seeds. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 112. | FNA vol. 5, p. 105. |
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Stellaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Alsine pubera, Alsine pubera var. tennesseensis | Sagina fontinalis, Alsine fontinalis, Arenaria fontinalis, Spergula fontinalis |
Name authority | Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 273. (1803) | (Short & R. Peter) B. L. Robinson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 29: 286. (1894) |
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