9. Cerastium Cerastioides (L.) Britton. Starwort Chickweed

Fig. 1771

Stellaria cerastioides L. Sp. Pl. 422. 1753.

Cerastium trigynum Vill. Hist. Pl. Dauph. 3: 645. 1789.

C. cerastioides Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 150. 1894.

Perennial, glabrous except a line of minute hairs along one side of the stem and branches, rarely pubescent throughout. Flowering branches ascending, 3'-6' long; leaves linear-oblong, 4"-8" long, about 1" wide, obtuse, the lower often smaller and slightly narrowed at the base; flowers solitary or few, 5"-6" broad, long-pedicelled; petals 2-lobed, mostly twice as long as the obtuse or acutish scarious-margined sepals; capsule nearly straight, twice the length of the calyx; styles 3, rarely 4 or 5; sepals and petals 5 or 4.

Gaspé, Quebec, and in arctic America. Also in arctic and alpine Europe and Asia. Summer.