Fleshy Starwort

The sterile shoots of Stellaria crassifolia (described as forma gemmificans Norman) form fleshy terminal buds under suitable conditions of temperature and day length. These propagules survive under the snow and are readily dispersed in the spring runoff.

Leaf shape and size vary considerably. Leaves tend to be smaller and wider in exposed habitats, and longer and narrower in sheltered, more favorable habitats. Plants with pubescent margins to the sepals are referable to var. eriocalycina Schischk.

Stellaria crassifolia is often confused with S. humifusa, but the former is a much more slender, delicate species with long pedicels that are sharply angled below the capsule.

Plants perennial, delicate, forming small to large tangled mats or straggling through grass, from slender rhizomes. Stems diffusely branched, 4-angled, 3-30 cm, gla-brous. Leaves sessile or subsessile; blade with midrib obscure, broadly elliptic-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, widest at or above middle, 0.2-0.8(-1.5) cm × to 2 mm, ± succulent, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate, glabrous; leaf blades in terminal buds sometimes become fleshy and form gemmae. Inflorescences with flowers usually solitary, terminal and in axils of distal leaves forming open, diffuse cymes; bracts foliaceous, 1-10 mm; 1 or 2 pairs of bracteoles sometimes present, 1-3 mm, herbaceous or with narrow membranous margins. Pedicels erect or sharply angled at base, becoming sharply curved at apex, 3-40 mm, glabrous. Flowers 5-8 mm; sepals 5, 3-veined, narrowly triangular-lanceolate, 3-3.5(-4) mm, margins straight, narrow, scarious, apex acute, glabrous or rarely margins pubescent; petals 5, 2.5-5 mm, equaling to slightly longer than sepals; stamens 5 or 10; styles 3, ascending, curved at tip, ca. 2 mm. Capsules straw colored, conic to ellipsoid, 4-5 mm, longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. Seeds reddish brown, reniform to round, 0.7-1 mm diam., rugose. 2n = 26.

Herbs perennial, glabrous. Stems ascending, quadrangular, 5--14 cm tall, slender, branched. Leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, 0.5--1.6(--2) cm × 1--4 mm, midvein conspicuously raised abaxially, base nearly rounded or cuneate, apex acuminate. Flower solitary, axillary or terminal; bracts leaflike, herbaceous, without membranous margin. Pedicel 1--2 cm, to 3.5 cm in fruit, slender. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, 3.5--4 × ca. 2 mm, 3-veined, margin broadly membranous, apex acuminate. Petals 5, subequaling sepals, 2-cleft nearly to base; lobes linear. Stamens 10, shorter than petals. Ovary suborbicular; styles 3. Capsule ellipsoid, 1.5--2 × as long as persistent sepals, 6-valved. Seeds brown, compressed globose, ca. 1 mm in diam., tuberculate. Fl. May--Jul, fr. Jun--Aug. 2n = 26.

Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Ill., Mich., Minn., N.Dak., S.Dak., Utah, Wyo.; Europe; Asia.

Flowering early summer.

Marshes, streams, cold, wet, grassy places; 0-3000m.

River banks, meadows, fields. Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia; Europe, North America].

Stellaria crassifolia var. eriocalycina Schischkin; S. crassifolia var. linearis Fenzl; S. gracilis Richardson

Stellaria crassifolia, the fleshy starwort, is a species of flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae, found in northern North America, Europe, and Asia. Its common Icelandish name is "Stjörnuarfi" (star-weed).