Fourstamen Chickweed

This species was abundant on the sandy shore at Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California, in 1985 and should be looked for elsewhere. The entirely herbaceous bracts, short capsule, and the floral parts usually in fours identify this small weedy species.

Previous reports of this species (as Cerastium tetrandrum) by J. A. Steyermark (1963) from Missouri and M. L. Fernald (1950) from Virginia are referable to C. pumilum and C. brachypetalum, respectively.

Plants annual, with slender taproot. Stems decumbent or ascending, diffusely branched, 7.5-30 cm, densely covered and viscid with short, glandular hairs; small axillary tufts of leaves ab-sent. Leaves not marcescent, ses-sile distally, spatulate to pseudopetiolate proximally; blade 5-10 × 2-4 mm, covered with short, glandular and eglandular hairs; proximal blades oblanceolate, apex obtuse; cauline blades ovate or oblong-ovate, apex acute. Inflorescences lax, 3-30-flowered cymes; bracts lanceolate to ovate, herbaceous, glandular-pubescent. Pedicels straight, ultimately erect in fruit, slender, 2-15 mm, much longer than capsule, glandular. Flowers 4(-5)-merous; sepals lanceolate, 4-7 mm, margins narrow distally, apex acute or acuminate, glandular-pubescent, hairs usually not projecting beyond apex; petals ca. 3 mm, ca. 0.75 times as long as sepals, apex 2-fid; stamens 4(-5); styles 4(-5). Capsules narrowly cylindric, nearly straight, 5-7.5 mm, 1-1.5 times as long as sepals; teeth 8 or 10, erect, margins convolute. Seeds reddish brown, 0.5-0.7 mm, bluntly tuberculate; testa not inflated. 2n = 72.

introduced; Calif., Ill.; Europe.

Flowering spring.

Sandy places on coast, rarely inland in similar places and on railway ballast; 0-300m.

Cerastium atrovirens Babington; C. tetrandrum Curtis

Cerastium diffusum, the fourstamen chickweed or sea mouse-ear, is a species of flowering plant in the pink and carnation family Caryophyllaceae. It is an annual herb, to 30 cm.high, occurring in western Europe and northern Africa. Found mainly in coastal areas of Algeria, the Baleares, Belgium, Corsica, Denmark, France, the Faroe Islands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Libya, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain and Sweden. The flowers have 4, (or seldom 5) petals, 4 or 5 stamens appearing between March and May. The petals are much shorter than the sepals. The leaves are opposite, (sessile) without petioles and the sepals and bracts are all green, without pale margins. The fruit petioles are erect and diffuse at maturity.: 490 : 52 

There are 2 known Infraspecifics;

Cerastium diffusum subsp. diffusum Cerastium diffusum subsp. gussonei (Tod. ex Lojac.) P.D.Sell & Whitehead

It was first published in Synopsis plantarum 1 on page 520 in 1805.