E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Cerastium arvense subsp. arvense
field chickweed
Caryophyllaceae (Pink family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants
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E-Flora BC Static Map
Distribution of Cerastium arvense subsp. arvense
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Species Information

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General:
Perennial herb from stolons or subrhizomes; often forming mats or clumps 10-40 cm wide; stems prostrate, branched, usually densely glandular-hairy above and in the inflorescence, glabrous to hairy below the nodes, the flowering stems decumbent to erect, 5-40 cm tall/long.
Leaves:
Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves opposite, mostly linear to lance-linear, 1-3 cm long, 1-7 mm wide, 1-nerved, greyish-green; with sterile branches arising in most leaf axils; stipules lacking.
Flowers:
Inflorescence of 3-6 flowers in an open cluster, rarely single; bracts of the inlorescence papery-margined; petals 5, white, egg-shaped, 8-12 mm long, deeply 2-cleft; sepals 5, oblong-lanceolate, 4-6 (7) mm long, glandular-hairy.
Fruits:
Capsules cylindric, 6-10 mm long, 10-valved; seeds golden to reddish-brown, 0.8-1.2 mm long, pimply.
Notes:
Highly variable, often confused with C. beeringianum.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat / Range

Moist to dry coastal bluffs, meadows, rockslides, rocky slopes and forest openings in all vegetation zones; frequent throughout BC; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to NE, GA, NM and CA; Eurasia.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

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