Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

Cerastium L. -- Mouse-ear chickweed

Low, erect to widely spreading annuals (in those treated here) with short, sticky pubescence. Leaves lanceolate, narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, acute to obtuse, exstipulate. Flowers in compact to open, terminal cymes; sepals acute to blunt, scarious-margined; petals present or often absent, white, shorter than to exceeding the sepals, usually bilobed; stamens 5 or 10; carpels 5, styles 5. Fruit a many-seeded, straight or curved, membranous, cylindric capsule, terminally dehiscent by 10 teeth.

Reference:

Shinners, L. H.  1966.  Cerastium glutinosum Fries (Caryophyllaceae) in 
     Mississippi: new to North America.  Sida 2:392-393.

Lead	Characteristic	Go To
1	Pedicels 0.5-1.25X the length of the calyx in flower, to 3X the calyx length and straight or only slightly curved in age.	C. brachypodum
1	Pedicels 1-3X the length of the calyx in flower, to 5X the calyx length and sharply curved below the calyx in age.	C. nutans

14. Caryophyllaceae, the Pink Family

1. Cerastium L.--Mouse-ear chickweed

1. Cerastium brachypodum (Engelm. ex A. Gray) Robins.

2. Cerastium nutans Raf.

Return to Family -- Caryophyllaceae - The Pink Family
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