Plants → Caryophyllaceae → Stellaria
Stellaria media (L.) Vill.
Chickweed
Hist.Pl.Dauph. 3:615 (1789)
Conservation Status:
Alien
Name Status:
Current
Brief Description
Amanda Spooner,
Tuesday 14 August 2007
Sprawling annual, herb, 0.01–0.2 m high. Fl. white, Jun–Oct. Weed of gardens & disturbed areas. Distribution: ER: COO; SW: AW, ESP, GS, JF, SWA, WAR.
Scientific Description
Amanda Spooner, James Carpenter, Gillian Smith and Kim Spence,
Thursday 21 August 2008
Common name(s). Common Chickweed.
Habit. Annual or biennial, broad-leaved, prostrate, sprawling or erect herbs (sometimes stoloniferous, usually with a line of hairs along internodes), up to 0.2 m high, 0.1 m in diameter.
Leaves. Opposite, decussate, simple, sheathing (petiole bases just sheath the nodes), petiolate or subsessile or sessile (lower leaves petiolate; upper leaves sessile), petiole 4–23 mm long. Leaf blade 8–40 mm long, 4–17 mm wide, undissected, elliptic or ovate, base rounded or tapering, margins entire, apex acute or apiculate. Blade glabrous.
Flowers. Solitary or arranged in inflorescences, in cymes, axillary; predominantly white, regular, pedicellate, pedicel 6–30 mm long, perianth 2 -whorled. Calyx 4.5–8 mm long, 5 sepals, all sepals free. Corolla 2.5–4 mm long, 5 petals (deeply bilobed; no coronal lobes), all petals free. Stamens 3–10, free of the perianth, both opposite and alternating with the corolla parts, free of each other. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Ovary syncarpous, superior, 1 -celled. Ovules numerous. Styles 3, simple.
Fruit. Dehiscent (opening by 6 valves), a capsule, non-fleshy, 4–7 mm long, 3.5 mm wide.
Distribution. Australian: Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania. Alien to Australia, alien to Western Australia, naturalised. Native distribution: Europe.
Habitat. Amongst tall trees, medium trees, low trees, tall (sclerophyll) shrubland, low (sclerophyll) shrubland, grassland; occurring on the coast; in rocky or stony soil, gravelly soil, sand, loam, clay, wet soil; occupying plains, gentle slopes, estuarine slopes, breakaway fans, lake edges, saline flats (seasonally wet), consolidated sand dunes; growing in cropland, on wasteland, in disturbed natural vegetation, in gardens, on bare areas (on road verges and pavements).
Flowering period. June, July, August, September, October.
Additional differences from related species. Stellaria media has petals present, sepals 4.5–8 mm long and dark reddish-brown seeds greater than 0.9 mm long cf. S. pallida, with no petals, sepals 2–4.5 mm long and light reddish-brown seeds less than 0.9 mm long. The stems of alien Stellaria spp. have a line of hairs along internodes cf. native Stellaria spp. where internodes are glabrous or with scattered hairs not in a definite line.
Descriptions are sourced from the Weed Information Network project, Western Australian Herbarium.
Descriptions were generated using DELTA data format and DELTA software: Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1995 onwards, 1998).
