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

General:
Perennial herb from a slender rhizome; stems decumbent to more usually erect, several, branched, matted, 4-angled, glabrous to slightly hairy near the base, 3-30 cm tall/long.

Leaves:
Basal leaves few, reduced, soon deciduous; stem leaves opposite, unstalked, egg-shaped or linear to linear-lanceolate, 5-30 mm long, 1-4 mm wide, abruptly sharp-pointed, rigid and stiff, often glaucous; stipules lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of solitary, or few to several flowers in an open cluster; petals 5, white, 2-cleft, 3-8 mm long; sepals 5, lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, usually glabrous, strongly 3-nerved.

Fruits:
Capsules usually purplish, 4-6 mm long, 6-valved; seeds 0.6-0.9 mm long, reddish-brown, lightly roughened.

Notes:
In an earlier treatment (Douglas et al. 1989) Stellaria longipes was treated as a single, highly variable taxon based on the research of Chinnappa and Morton (1976, 1984). Recently, Emery and Chinnappa (1994) have shown that it now best to recognize three varieties within the S. longipes complex. Two of these occur in BC.

1. Flowers solitary; leaves egg-shaped; plants mostly of the alpine zone...................... var. monantha (Hult.) Emery & Chinnappa

1. Flowers on most plants more than 1; leaves linear to linear-lanceolate; plants occurring in all vegetation zones....................... var. longipes