Red Sandspurry

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
sporangium of Peronospora obovata parasitises live Spergularia rubra

Foodplant / parasite
telium of Uromyces sparsus parasitises live Spergularia rubra

Spergularia rubra was collected in 1901 on ballast in Alabama (Mohr, DS), the only record in the southeastern United States. It is the most widely distributed Spergularia species found outside of saline areas in the flora and has been in North America since at least the 1860s.

Plants annual or short-lived perennial, delicate, 4-25 cm, stipi-tate-glandular in inflorescence. Taproots slender to ± stout. Stems erect to ascending or prostrate, usually much-branched proximally; main stem 0.3-0.5 mm diam. proximally. Leaves: stipules conspicuous, shiny white, lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm, apex long-acuminate; blade filiform to linear, 0.4-1.5 cm, scarcely fleshy, apex apiculate to spine-tipped; axillary leaves 2-4+ per cluster. Cymes simple to 3+-compound or flowers solitary and axillary. Pedicels ascending to reflexed. Flowers: sepals connate 0.5-0.7 mm proximally, lobes often 3-veined, lanceolate, (2-)2.5-3.2 mm, to 4 mm in fruit, margins 0.1-0.3 mm wide, apex obtuse to acute; petals pink, obovate to ovate, 0.9-1 times as long as sepals; stamens 6-10; styles 0.6-0.8 mm. Capsules greenish to tan, 3.5-5 mm, 1-1.2 times as long as sepals. Seeds red-brown to dark brown, with submarginal groove, broadly ovate or ± truncate, angular at broad end, plump, 0.4-0.6 mm, sculpturing of parallel, wavy lines, margins with peglike papillae (30×); wing absent. 2n = 18, 27, 36, 54 (all Europe).

Herbs annual, sometimes perennial. Taproot slender, sometimes ± woody. Stems diffuse, decumbent or procumbent, 20--25 cm, branched at base, apically glandular pubescent. Leaves fasciculate, 5--20 × 0.5--1 mm, glabrous or pubescent; stipules silvery, lanceolate, apex acuminate. Cymes sparse; bracts nearly as large as leaves. Sepals lanceolate, 3--4.5 mm. Petals uniformly pink, obovate, equaling or shorter than sepals. Stamens (5 or)10. Capsule 4--5 mm, ca. equaling calyx. Seeds dark brown, subtrigonous, small, tuberculate, unwinged. Fl. May--Jul, fr. Jul--Oct. 2n = 18, 27, 36, 54.

introduced; St. Pierre and Miquelon; B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; Europe; Asia; introduced in South America, Australia.

Xinjiang [Afghanistan, N India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia; Europe].

Flowering spring-fall.

Open forests, gravelly glades, meadows, mud flats, roadsides, disturbed places; 0-2400m.

Sands, saline soils, forests, shallow watersides; ca. 800 m.

Arenaria rubra Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 423. 1753; Tissa rubra (Linnaeus) Britton

Arenaria rubra Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 423. 1753; A. campestris Linnaeus; Spergularia campestris (Linnaeus) Ascherson.

Spergularia rubra, the red sandspurry or red sand-spurrey, is a plant species in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa, and it is present on other continents, including North and South America and Australia, as an introduced species and in many areas a common weed. It grows in a wide variety of habitat types.

It is an annual or perennial herb producing a slender, glandular stem up to about 25 centimeters long. It is lined with slightly fleshy linear or threadlike leaves each under 2 centimeters long. The leaves may be tipped with hard points or spines, and they are accompanied by shiny white lance-shaped stipules. Flowers occur in the leaf axils and at the tips of the stems. They have hairy, glandular sepals and five round-oval pink petals.