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

Introduction to Vascular Plants

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Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Cerastium arvense subsp. strictum
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Species Information

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.

SourceThe Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat and 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.

SourceThe Illustrated Flora of British Columbia