General: Annual herb from a short, slender taproot; stems ascending to erect, glandular-hairy to somewhat soft-hairy, 1 to several, simple or basally branched, 5-25 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal and lower stem leaves spoon-shaped to oblanceolate, 6-30 mm long, broadly short-stalked; stem leaves opposite, several pairs, linear-lanceolate to egg-shaped, unstalked; stipules lacking.
Flowers: Inflorescence several in a loose, leafy, bracted cluster; stalks glandular soft-hairy; petals 5, white, usually sharply deflexed at the tips, 2-cleft, 6-10 mm long, occasionalály lacking; sepals 5, elliptic, 4-5 mm long, generally glandular soft-hairy.
Fruits: Capsules cylindric, curved at maturity, 7-12 mm long, 10-valved; seeds light brown, 0.5-0.7 mm long.
Moist to mesic streambanks, grasslands and open forests in the steppe and lower montane zones; infrequent in SC BC, rare in the Peace River area; N to S AK and S NT, E to PQ and NS, and S to SC, FL, UT, TX, AZ and OR.
Ecological Framework for Cerastium nutans var. nutans
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
